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TO THE 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 



or 



JONAS CHICKERING. 



"BY ONE WHO KNEW HIM WELL." 



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" Kneeling before this ruin of sweet life, 
And breathing to this breathless excellence 
The incense of a vow, a holy vow,— 
.... I honored him, I loved him, and will weep.'* 

King John. 



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BOSTON 

WILLIAM P. TEWKSBUBY. 

362 Washington Street. 
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[THE LIBRARY 
or CONGRESS 

WASHINGTON 



Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1854, 

BY WILLIAM P. TEWKSBURY, 

In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



WILLIAM A. HALL, PRINTER, 22 SCHOOL STREET. 



TO 



The following "Tribute" to the memory of your 
excellent Father, I respectfully dedicate to you. If it 
be not worthy of the subject, its sincerity must in some 
measure, at least, atone for its defects. 

My acquaintance with him commenced many years ago, 
when, in your early days, he consigned the education of 
his two elder sons to my care. Called as I was, shortly 
afterwards, to a different field of labor, my interest in 
him and in you has never ceased ; and while I rejoiced at 
his well earned prosperity, I could not feel a less degree 
of joy in seeing the early promise of the sons ripening 
into a character worthy of the father. Should I fail in 
my attempt to do justice to his memory, I trust that my 
endeavor to make his successors better known will not be 
wholly in vain. 

Respectfully, 

RICHARD G. PARKER. 

Boston, February, 1854. 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



The sources from which we have derived the facts and 
statements detailed in the following pages are believed to be 
authentic. Many of them are founded on personal know- 
ledge, and all the rest either on printed documents, or on 
the direct testimony of the early and intimate friends of 
the excellent and worthy man, whose worth, with a just and 
unexaggerated commendation, we would commemorate. If, 
in vindicating his claims to originality of invention, we 
have in any instance done injustice to the superior claims 
of others we shall be glad to make honorable amends. We 
are aware that our materials are scanty, and that the 
stirring events of his life were few ; but we are not con- 
scious of any endeavor to give a factitious importance to 
circumstances trivial in themselves and beneath the dignity 
of sober history. Fortunately for our purpose, many of 
his earliest and most intimate friends are still among us, 
including his teachers, his school-fellows, and his earliest 
fellow-laborers. From them we have derived considerable 

information with regard to his early days. His later history 
l* 



VI ADVERTISEMENT. 

is too well known among us to require any labored proof. 
A desire to perpetuate the record of " excellent service, 
tried worth, and irreparable loss " is our only motive in the 
preparation of these p. gyfr of which we have only to regret 
that we could not bring to the work a degree of talent and 
of time commensurate with the zeal with which it has been 
undertaken. 



A TMBUx£ 



The stone which is cast on the waters of the 
lake, ruffles its surface and causes a ripple which 
" verges in successive rings n till it dies away in 
faintness on the shore. The choral sounds which 
give delight to the ear and harmonize with the 
feelings, undulate through the air till they also are 
lost to our senses. But philosophy teaches us that 
effects are in both cases produced which, although 
inappreciable by finite beings, are not lost when 
they cease to be the objects of sense ; and a distin- 
guished author has lately suggested that the voices 
of our primitive parents may still be vibrating in 
the fields of infinite space, and the light of long- 
lost worlds be still shining " far beyond the ken of 
mortal vision," with an energy which, though still 
decreasing, can never wholly die away. The sug- 
gestion is by no means a philosophical fallacy. 
Atoms form worlds, worlds form systems, and 
systems compose the created universe. Causes 



D JONAS CHICKERING. 

produce effects, and these effects are the secondary 
causes of other effects still working under the eye 
of that Great First Cause, which directs, controls, 
suggests all that happens. 

But it is not to the material creation alone that 
we would apply this great philosophical truth. 
There is a universe of thought as well as of mat- 
ter, a boundless creation of moral agencies still at 
work, whose effects can no more be controlled by 
the boundaries of human understanding, than can 
material agencies by human perception. The tear 
of sympathy, the hand extended to relieve, the 
word of encouragement, the whispers of admoni- 
tion, the reproaches of conscience, all produce 
their immediate and perhaps sensible effects ; but 
beyond the visible sphere of their operations, they 
send a thrill through the moral universe, that ex- 
tends through all the orders of existence up to the 
throne of God. No one is independent. As well 
might we expect the universal law of gravitation 
partial in its operation, that one lawless particle 
could wander through the universe of God unaf- 
fected and alone, as that an act, a thought, a feel- 
ing of a single individual could exist without an 
influence as wide in its extent, as powerful in its 
operation, as lasting in its duration, as those mate- 



JONAS CHICKERINGc 9 

rial causes whose effects extend to the remotest 
corners of the universe. No one can be so hum- 
ble as to be overlooked in the providence of God, 
nor can a human being exist without exerting an 
influence as boundless as the duration of his 
immortal soul. Misfortunes may assail him, adver- 
sity may cast him into obscurity, and abject pov- 
erty may crush the aspirations of his soul, but his 
place in the grand scale of being is still filled, and 
he is either the subject or the object of all the pas- 
sions of human nature, the agent who exerts, or as 
the object, the field of their exertion ; and the great 
law of action and reaction, is no less susceptible 
of moral than of mechanical application. 

But we are not blind to the truth that the appa- 
rent influence of an individual is in some measure 
dependent upon his station in life. An object on 
the hill is more perceptible than one in the valley, 
but it has not more reality. The bright background 
of the former presents a bolder outline, and its lin- 
eaments are more strongly portrayed ; but it is the 
valley which makes the hill, and the contrast be- 
tween the objects alone makes the apparent differ- 
ence in the objects, according to their respective 
position. 

The warrior, the statesman, the monarch, with 



10 JONAS CHICKERING. 

all their proud array, are the mere concentration of 
individual influences, as the mighty ocean is the 
mere aggregation of watery particles, which owe 
their power, to their union. If in the one case the 
subjects are rebellious and refuse their individual 
cooperation to maintain the authority of the sover- 
eign, and if on the other, each particle exhibits a 
repulsive energy, both will sink into insignifi- 
cance. What was the " Merry Monarch" who 
subsequently swayed the destinies of England, 
when, a fugitive and an exile, he sought the hum- 
blest shelter that would secure his safety. The 
Eighteenth Louis of France was long a stipendi- 
ary of the court of England, and the Great Alfred 
patiently endured the reproaches of the mistress of 
a cottage. Diocletian in his garden exerted as 
powerful an influence as when he controlled the 
eagles of imperial Rome ; and Charles of Ger- 
many, whether his abdication was caused by a 
realization of the vanities of worldly pomp, or by 
superstitious fears of a harmless comet, exerted no 
greater an effect on mankind when his power was 
a source of uneasiness to all the other princes of 
Europe, than when he exchanged sovereignty, do- 
minion, and worldly grandeur for the solitary quiet 
of the cloisters of -St. Justus. How many have 



JONAS CHICKERING. 11 

seen in this instance of repudiation the emptiness 
of human grandeur, and how little satisfaction the 
cup of human pleasure can give to the thirst of an 
immortal soul. The pages of history inform us of 
the contests of the mighty chief of ths Holy Roman 
Empire in his struggles for undisputed sovereignty. 
They give us graphic details of his influence 
among princes and potentates and among the lofty 
of this world. But the record of the influence 
of his example of retirement, his surrender of the 
pomp of sovereignty, has not been unrolled. How 
many have been led aside from the paths of ambi- 
tion by this revelation of the emptiness of rank, 
will be learnt only when the secrets of all hearts 
shall be revealed, and we shall know even as we 
are known. The storm may ruffle the surface of 
the deep and threaten to unbare its secret springs ; 
but its own mightiness furnishes a recuperative 
energy, that allays the tempest and restores the 
calm ; while the little insect, unseen, unnoticed, 
invisible, prepares his habitation for ages in suc- 
cessive generations, and lays the foundations of 
future continents. It is not the mighty energies 
of nature by which the great physical changes of 
the world have been wrought. Convulsions may 
agitate discordant elements, but it is the calm that 



12 JONAS CHICKERINGV 

succeeds in which the sedimentary formations are 
made by which the configuration of our globe has 
been most affected. 

It is not, then, among the mighty of this world 
alone that we are to look for those whose influence 
and whose example have been most efficacious in 
their day and generation, and whom Providence 
has most highly honored by making them the in- 
struments of widely-extended purposes. Each one 
has a part to perform, a space to fill in the mighty 
plan of the Almighty Mind, and each is invested 
with mutual powers of action and reaction. Great 
events follow the most apparently insignificant 
causes. Who could have foreseen that the desire 
of a monarch to be better lodged would not only 
have lost the brightest jewel of his crown, but also* 
given a westward course to the star of empire ? * 
Wha could have dreampt that the fall of an apple 
would have led the mind of a philosopher to the 
discovery of the law by which worlds are control- 
led, and completely revolutionized the whole do- 
main of science ? Who would have supposed 

* History Informs us that the real cause of the taxation 
of the American Colonies was not so much to obtain indem- 
nification for the expenses of the French and Indian war, as 
to furnish the means of gratifying the architectural taste of 
George III., then a young man, and enable him to build a 
new palace. 



JONAS CHICKERING. 13 

that the playful fancies of an unfaithful boy* 
would have led to the perfection of that mighty 
engine, whose " tramp, tramp, upon the land, and 
splash, splash, upon the sea," has brought the 
remotest ends of the earth into communion, and 
released so many thousands of hands from hard 
and fatiguing labor ? Who would have guessed 
that the playful pastimes of children! would have 
led to the invention of that wonderful instrument 
which has brought countless worlds within the 
field of distinct vision ? Who could have imagin- 
ed that the morbid appetite of a diseased woman J 
would have unfolded to the world that wonderful 
science, by which man has been enabled to pene- 
trate the secrets of nature and enlist in his service 
that tremendous agent, against whose power neither 
time, nor space, nor solidity are of any avail ? But 
why should we multiply instances ? The history 
of the world is full of proof that the world is more 
indebted to apparent insignificance for the greatest 
changes in its physical condition, and the history 
of man records a greater number of beneficial 
changes from the operation of humble and appa- 

* Humphrey Potter. See history of the Steam-engine. 

■j- See history of the Telescope. 

% See history of Galvanic Electricity. 



14 JONAS CHICKERING. 

rently insignificant means, than from all that is 
called great and wise and learned. 

Thus much of apology we make for obtruding 
upon the world some notice of the life of one who 
though dead yet speaketh, and who in the retired 
walks of private life has exerted an influence in 
the community which will long be felt even where 
he was unknown ; an individual who by patient 
industry and fidelity and in loved seclusion un- 
consciously elevated himself to the highest rank, a 
rank unrecognized by stars, garters, and emblazon- 
ment, but above them all — the order of nature's 
nobility. Jonas Chickering was one of nature's 
noblemen. Endowed with that native diffidence 
which is often the presage of real worth, he was 
a man whose character was to be studied before 
it could be known. Gifted with no ordinary de- 
gree of penetration, he understood character better 
than he was understood himself; and although, 
from an over-easy disposition, he might suffer 
himself to become a victim, he could never be 
made a dupe. Winning his way to prosperity 
by patient application rather than by penurious 
savings, his was a liberality tempered by judg- 
ment and discretion, which sought its objects not 
with ostentatious display, but with a single eye to 



JONAS CHICKERING. 15 

general usefulness. Many were in his employ, 
and he singled out occupations for all according 
to their respective ability. He required from all 
their best services, but he always suited the nature 
of the service to their respective abilities. Few 
applied to him for employment without success in 
their application, but he was singularly fortunate 
in discovering each man's particular vein. As in 
the beautiful pieces of mechanism that emanated 
from his hands, the materials of the same stock 
were selected with a discriminating eye^ some for 
beauty, some for strength, and all for a due effect; 
so among them who shaped those materials he 
had the judgment to discern what particular duty 
could be best performed by each individual, and 
nothing was neglected, nothing done amiss. This 
was the great secret of his success. It was this 
that gave confidence to the public in everything 
that proceeded from his hands, and his name was 
the guaranty of perfection in his works. And 
while this peculiar skill was thus attended by 
public patronage and success, his own sense of 
imperative justice taught him to obey the divine 
injunction not to " muzzle the mouth of the ox 
that treadeth out the corn." He demanded, it is 
true, the best services of those in his employ, but 



26 



JONAS CHICKERING, 



he met them with a just and liberal compensation, 
He required that all should follow his own exam- 
ple of steady habits and industrious occupation,, 
but all his requirements were tempered by a proper 
consideration of what is due from man to man. 
The consequence of all this was, that he was at 
all times surrounded by a set of men skilful as 
artisans, faithful as assistants, valuable as citizens^ 
respecting themselves,, and respected as members; 
of society. Few who were employed by him 
voluntarily left his service, unless to set up in 
business for themselves, and among those, who, in 
the respectable vocation which he followed, now 
flourish in this city, there are many who owe their 
success to the industrious habits and skill which 
they obtained while in his employ. 

Nor was his patronage confined to his own 
occupation. Whatever of taste or beauty his 
discriminating eye could discern in other depart- 
ments of mechanical or artistic skill, was sure of 
his encouragement, and what is more, of substan- 
tial patronage. Pure and simple in his tastes,, 
retiring in his manners, but quick to discern real 
merit, his hand was open, with his heart in it,, 
whenever an occasion was presented for a benifi- 
cent liberality. But his liberality never degener- 



JONAS CHICKERING. 17 

ated into a useless profusion, nor did his gener- 
osity sink into prodigality. He knew the value 
of money, without valuing it; and used it as a 
means, without pursuing it as an end. In all the 
details of business he was scrupulous and exact, 
rendering to all their dues, and demanding his 
own, except when such demand wets productive 
of inconvenience to those from whom it was due, 
and then he considered it his own no more. He 
knew how to confer a favor in such a way as not 
to make it felt as an obligation, and while his 
own liberality was poured forth with an unspar- 
ing hand, he demanded nothing but silence in 
return, It was absolutely painful to him to be 
reminded of a favor that he had bestowed, and 
his self-complacency could only be restored when 
he had found an opportunity silently to confer 
another. He kept open no " running charity ac- 
count with heaven ;" it was sufficient for him to 
know that there was need, and his hand uncon- 
sciously opened. His only study was to know 
how, with the least publicity and with the utmost 
delicacy, his liberality could be most usefully 
exerted, and when that study was completed, 
there was no after-thought. 

Such, in brief, was the character of the man to 

2* 



28 JONAS CHICKERING. 

whose memory these few pages are devoted ; and 
we think that it will not be uninteresting to the 
public to know something of the history of a life 
which, though unmarked by stirring events, was 
pure and consistent, and presents an example 
worthy of close imitation. There is a beauty in 
such a character which affection loves to cherish 
in dearest memory, and friendship delights to 
commemorate in terms of warmth and admiration. 
The task should have been performed by abler 
hands, his virtues portrayed in more eloquent 
language; and doubtless there are many among 
us who have been the recipients of his bounty, 
who would gladly have devoted their pens and 
their voices to the grateful labor, but are re- 
strained only by a too sensitive diffidence of 
their ability to render adequate justice to his 
memory. The tribute which we would pay 
must make up in sincerity w^hat is lacking in 
ability; and if we have not ourselves been the 
recipients of that bounty which was so eagerly 
watchful in seeking out its objects, we can speak 
as a delighted witness of its activity. The value 
of a benefaction is materially affected by the man- 
ner in which it is bestowed ; and that benevolence 
is the more highly to be prized which is not called 



JONAS CHICKERING. 19 

forth on particular occasions, but gushes out from 
a heart overflowing with tender sensibilities. And 
when to this benevolence is superadded the supe- 
rior grace of religious principle and true Christian 
charity, the character which is raised upon it be- 
comes rounded off into a beautiful fulness of such 
exquisite proportions, that we can give it no more 
appropriate name than that of the Christian gen- 
tleman. 

In the undertaking which we have commenced, 
we have but one ground of fear, and that is that 
we shall fail in portraying that beautiful harmony 
which his life and character presented. The 
strongest expressions of panegyric may be uttered 
without fulsomeness, arid yet injustice done to his 
memory by neglecting to present in proper relief 
that symmetry which existed among all his virtues, 
by which liberality was prevented from degenera- 
ting into prodigality, a wise prudence into mean- 
ness, economy into parsimony, trust into credulity, 
facility of approach into too great familiarity, and 
sensibility into weakness. There was an open- 
ness and sincerity in all his dealings, with but one 
exception, and that was when he had conferred a 
favor, and that he required should be as secret as 
if it had been delivered under the seal of confes- 



20 JONAS CHICKERING. 

sion. He concealed even from the knowledge of 
his own immediate family, and even from her 
from whom he kept no other secrets, every act of 
this kind, and they were very many ; and indeed 
so secret was he about such matters, that it was 
not seldom the case that they were placed under 
considerable embarrassment from the expressions 
of gratitude from the recipients for acts of gener- 
osity of which they were utterly ignorant. A case 
of this kind we will relate which we know to be 
authentic. A distinguished gentleman of the 
medical profession, now deceased, called one day 
on Mrs. C, and with a heart overflowing with 
gratitude expressed with considerable emotion his 
acknowledgments for the generous benefaction 
bestowed a day or two before by Mr. C. on the 
benevolent institution with which he was con- 
nected. The lady, considerably embarrassed, was 
at last compelled to confess her entire ignorance 
of the subject which had called forth these expres- 
sions of grateful emotion ; and the gentleman 
himself was the first to inform her what her hus- 
band had done. He had sent one of the best in- 
struments of his manufacture to the Institution for 
the Blind at South Boston. When she afterwards 
gently reproached him for not having informed her 



JONAS CHICKERING. 21 

of it, his reply was characteristic. " My dear," 
said he, "I never thought of it." 

Another instance or rather instances of his steal- 
thy manner of conferring benefits, we have from 
the lips of one who knew him well, the gentleman 
who for many years before the erection of the two 
new edifices which now adorn our city, has had 
the charge of the favorite hall of public exhibitions. 
It is well known that the splendid corridors con- 
nected with his warerooms were the favorite resort 
of all the artists, foreign or domestic, connected 
with the musical profession, and that his manu- 
factory furnished most of the instruments which 
were used in public exhibitions. This circum- 
stance introduced him to many persons of rare 
talents, but slender means, whose support was 
dependent upon public patronage at their exhibi- 
tions. On such occasions it was his custom to 
scan the house with an eye of calculation, and to 
inquire of the keeper whether the exhibition ivould 
pay ; and on being answered in the negative, he 
would whisper to the keeper, " Charge the expen- 
ses of the house and fifty dollars worth of tickets 
to me," at the same time enjoining the utmost 
secrecy. In w^hat more delicate manner could a 
charity be bestowed without burdening the recip- 



22 JONAS CHICKERING. 

ient by a sense of obligation! Indeed, in all his 
benefactions, one would suppose from his manner 
that he himself was the recipient instead of the 
benefactor, and they were sure of disturbing his 
composure who reminded him of the favors they 
had received at his hands. 

Another incident, which we have from the lips 
of one who best knew all the circumstances of the 
case. Mr. C. and some of the members of his 
family, the constant companions of all his excur- 
sions, were at one of the public houses in New 
York, when they were honored by a call from one 
of the most distinguished of our American poets, 
who urged the hospitalities of his house with em- 
phatic earnestness, and was most unintermittent in 
his attention during the whole of the stay of the 
party in that city. These civilities, gratifying as 
doubtless they were, were received by most of the 
party with much surprise, nor could they account 
for the heartiness with which they were evidently 
bestowed. This surprise was heightened by a 
circumstance which subsequently occurred. The 
brother of the poet was on the eve of his departure 
to Europe for his education, and although he had 
parents and near friends in the city, he preferred 
taking his last dinner on shore at the hospitable 



JONAS CHICKERING. 23 

table of Mr. C, where, although a welcome guest, 
his appearance at such an hour caused no little 
surprise among the family, who naturally sup- 
posed that his last hours before sailing would be 
spent in his own family circle. There were but 
two at the table who could solve the mystery ; 
but both were silent. The solution we present 
in the words of the young man himself : — 

" Many years since, a boy who thought and 
dreamed of nothing but music, wandered into a 
certain large establishment in Boston, where his 
favorite instruments were manufactured. Passing 
into the extensive saloons where these instruments 
were displayed, he sought out a quiet corner, and 
seating himself at one of those magnificent pianos, 
he first looked around to be sure that no one was 
listening, and then began to play some of those 
beautiful waltzes of Beethoven which at that time 
so suited his capacity and suited his heart. Borne 
away in a delicious musical reverie, he did not for 
some time observe that a figure had stolen up to 
him and was listening as he played. A benevo- 
lent face was over him and a kind voice addressed 
words of commendation and praise, which being 
the first the boy had received, sent the blood ting- 
ling through his cheeks. The proprietor of the 



24 JONAS CHICKERING. 

establishment, for it was he, then asked the boy 
if he would like to come and live among those 
pianos, discoursing just such music to purchasers, 
thus forming, in a word, a connexion with his 
establishment. But books and college were be- 
fore the boy, and wondering at the proposition, he 
timidly thanked the proprietor and declined. 

" Years passed away ; school and college were 
done with, and the books thrown aside. The boy 
had reached manhood ; but still the spirit of music 
haunted him, and again he found himself in those 
spacious saloons. He had just ceased playing 
upon one of those magnificent instruments again, 
and stood looking dreamily out of the window 
down upon the crowded Washington street below. 
Again a quiet figure stole up to him, and a most 
musical and pleasant voice began to speak. The 
person before him was of small stature, had the 
manners and garb of a gentleman, was dressed in 
black, with a single magnificent diamond pin in 
his bosom ; the only contrast in his appearance, 
was the clean white apron of a workman which 
he wore. It was the proprietor of the establish- 
ment again, who, wealthy as he was, had his own 
little working cabinet, with an exquisite set of 
tools, and there put the finishing touch he entrusted 



JONAS CHICKERING. 25 

to no one else. The proprietor inquired kindly of 
the young man as to his plans for life. These, 
alas, were undetermined. The voice of music 
was more fascinating than- ever, but a learned 
profession of some kind seemed to be the wishes 
and expectations of his friends. Music, however, 
was his first and strongest love, and he had some- 
times thought if he could but go abroad to study, 
he would decide for that. But he was poor. His 
father had given him his college education and his 
blessing, as capital for life. A harsh struggle with 
the world was before him ; music, therefore, was 
hardly to be thought of. 

" In the quietest tone of that low, pleasant voice, 
the proprietor, as though making an ordinary re- 
mark, rejoined, * Well, but then if the sum of five 
hundred dollars a year, for a period of four years, 
will suit your purpose, I could easily supply you 
with thaV 

"The world grew dim before him, and the 
young man almost staggered with surprise; but 
when he recovered himself there was the same 
quiet gentleman standing beside him, and looking 
pleasantly out of the window. Two months after- 
wards the young man sailed for Europe, where he 
passed the allotted time, and longer from means 

3 



26 JONAS CHICKERING. 

with which his own compositions in the meantime 
furnished him. And whatever of knowledge, and 
whatever of artistic culture, and whatever of suc- 
cess in life as connected with art, have since been 
his, he ascribes entirely to that most generous and 
noble-hearted Mecsenas of art ; and to the latest 
day of his life will he never cease to cherish the 
memory of his first and best friend. 

" That noble friend was Jonas Chickering of 
Boston, now lying cold in death, and that boy the 
present editor of the New York Musical World, 
the writer of this article ; and nothing would have 
prevented a grateful declaration of this noble deed, 
but the unwilling condition, absolutely imposed, 
of silence ; that the circumstance should be revealed 
to none but parents. But such a condition is surely 
cancelled by death ; and a long-repressed gratitude 
must at length proclaim itself to the world."* 

* There are now two young ladies in Europe, who, having 
been sent out for their musical education, have already 
achieved considerable distinction. It was mainly through 
the exertions of Mr. C. and his " material aid," that the 
necessary funds were raised to enable them to procure an 
education deemed necessary to raise an expectant to the 
neighborhood of the pinnacle of fame. 

Indeed his knowledge of any case of indigent merit was 

always sure to nullify the adage of Juvenal : — 

" Haud facile emergunt quorum virtutibus obstat 
lies augusta domi." 



JONAS CHICKERING, 27 

If all the pent-up gratitude now glowing in the 
hearts of those who have been the recipients of 
his bounty, should break out into utterance, a 
chorus would be heard as loud, as full, as emphatic 
as was ever pealed forth in sincerity to the praise 
of mortal man. Many of those whom he has 
benefitted have gone before him to the world of 
spirits, with blessings on their lips, as they left the 
world, for him who had softened their pillows and 
soothed their declining years. It is doubtless the 
case that he was not unfrequently imposed upon 
by many who applied to him for relief ; but on 
such occasions he was the victim neither of weak- 
ness nor of credulity. His benefactions were sin- 
gularly judicious, and although bestowed with no 
sparing hand, they always met the case of present 
necessity. It was a rule that seems to have been 
self-imposed, that the relief of one case of real 
suffering was cheaply purchased at the price of 
numerous benefactions; and he seemed to have 
borrowed from the law that humane adage, that 
it is better that many culprits should go un- 
scathed, than that one innocent person should be 
victimized. He did not therefore borrow from his 
neighbors that custom which drives all mendicants 
from the door, referring them to houses and insti- 



28 JONAS CRICKERING. 

tutions for relief, or the eleemosynary establish- 
ments of the city, but all who came were sure of 
the means of relieving present necessity. 

We have thus dwelt considerably at length 
upon one peculiar trait of his character, which 
had grown into such dimensions, and had become 
so notorious, that it came uppermost into the 
mouths of all whenever his name was mentioned, 
and made them indifferent to what was behind it 
He was indeed a self-made man, with no boast of 
ancestry, no stars nor garters nor emblazonment 
to fall back upon, to give him an artificial impor- 
tance in the eyes of his fellow-men. But they 
who look only at his charities, see but a part, and 
that but a small part, of the man. There is a 
beauty in his early . life, which we think far 
eclipses any peculiar trait which adorned his 
manhood ; and we propose to recite the particu- 
lars of those early years, which we have learnt 
from the lips of those who knew him best. For 
what we state we have the most undoubted 
authority. 

Jonas Chickering was the second son of Abner 
Chickering, a blacksmith, and an excellent farmer, 
of New Ipswich, in the State of New Hampshire* 
a town which can boast of its Farrars, its Apple- 



JONAS CHICKERING. 29 

tons, its Goulds, and many others distinguished 
alike in the annals of law, of science, of medicine, 
and of divinity, as well as in the pursuit of honest, 
honorable, and successful commercial enterprise. 
The father resided for several years at Mason vil- 
lage, and shortly after the birth of Jonas, in the 
year 1798, he purchased the farm known as the 
Knowlton Place in New Ipswich, where he resided 
until his death in the year 1841, at the age of sev- 
enty-four years. His children were Mary, Samuel, 
Jonas, Melinda, Eliza, Rebecca, and Charles. He 
is described in the annals of the town as " an ex- 
cellent farmer, an amiable and industrious man, 
and a useful citizen." 

In those days a poor man's wealth was in his 
children, and more especially the boys, who could 
assist their fathers in the field ; and the subject of 
these memoirs was like others of his age required 
to eat the bread of carefulness and earn it " by 
the sweat of his brow." But dutiful as he was, 
and willing to take his share in the business of 
the field, it soon became apparent that his heart 
was not in the work. The ruling passion is of 
early birth, and it was strongly suspected from 
little circumstances which then occurred, that al- 
though he did not shrink from the labors of the 

3* 



O0 JONAS CHICKERING. 

field, his genius was more directed toward the 
construction of the implements of agriculture than 
to the use of them. The action of one mechanical 
agency upon another had more attractions to him 
than their mutual action on the soil ; and it soon 
became apparent that there was too little of mind 
in practical agriculture in those days to give activ- 
ity to the buoyancy of his intellectual powers. It 
will be remembered that in those days, chemistry 
was scarcely acquainted with her sister science ? 
agriculture, nor indeed was any relationship sus- 
pected between them. The former was bent on 
the discovery of the philosopher's stone, and the 
latter was busied solely in banishing all stones 
from her fields as useless rubbish, impeding her 
progress and stopping the mouth of her coffers. 
The former was closely enveloped in an impene- 
trable hood, diving and delving among crucibles, 
furnaces, and alembics, toiling on in secret in 
pursuit of — she knew not what ; while the latter, in 
sunshine and in rain-drop, was exacting from the 
reluctant soil the scanty returns of wearisome and 
wasting labor. The former was pursuing bubbles 
that burst before they were fully inflated, and 
uttering a jargon unintelligible to the world, and 
which the world did not care to learn. The latter 



JONAS CHICKERING. 31 

considered all things as bubbles that did not con- 
tribute to the granary and the haystack, and cared 
little about language that soared above the field 
and the flock. In such a state of affairs the imple- 
ments of husbandry were handed down from father 
to son without a suspicion that they were suscep- 
tible of improvement. The simple contrivances, 
which had subserved the purposes of one gener- 
ation, were quietly surrendered to its successor, 
unquestioned and unsuspected, and the only soli- 
citude with regard to them was that they should be 
kept in decent repair. As agriculture, therefore, 
presented but a small field for the display of men- 
tal activity or mechanical talent, it was followed 
by our young friend only so far as it was an im- 
perative duty ; faithfully, it is true, but with an 
aversion which was but awkwardly concealed. 
His bent was to a different occupation, and accor- 
dingly at the age of seventeen he went to learn 
the art of cabinet-making of Mr. John Gould, 
with whom he remained for a period of three 
years. 

The establishment of Mr. Gould was on a lim- 
ited scale, but it was the only one within twenty 
miles of the town, and of course was the resort 
of all young persons about to set up a domestic 



32 JONAS CHICKERING. 

establishment, as well as those whose domestic 
articles had fallen into decay. Here our young 
friend was found from early morning to late in 
the evening; applying himself to a skilful use of 
the tools which he subsequently turned to so use- 
ful a purpose. To use the language of a fellow- 
townsman and cotemporary, " He never wasted a 
moment." He was punctual and systematic, and 
during the whole of work-time he might be found 
at his bench, cheerfully whistling some simple 
melody, while his hands were busily employed at 
the work before him. The Sabbath found him 
regularly at the village church, and his deportment 
there was in perfect keeping with the solemnity of 
the place and the sanctity of the day. The prom- 
ises which he made connected with his work were 
performed with the most scrupulous fidelity. If a 
piece of work was to be done at a certain day or 
hour, his promise was a guaranty of the certainty 
of its completion. In this respect particularly 
how many there are among us who would profit 
by his example. Promises are star-like in number, 
but like comets rare if not unexpected in the 
performance. 

At the expiration of three years, during which 
time he had matured the habits of fidelity and 



JONAS CHICKERING. 33 

industry which always distinguished his character, 
he was released by his master and sought a 
different field of action. Previous to this time his 
means for intellectual improvement were scanty 
and his time short. The school-room, it is true, 
was open, but it was not then as now the free 
resort of all who are disposed to profit by it ; but, 
like the temple of Janus, its doors creaked upon 
their hinges only when the elements were at war 
and interfered with the labors of the field. Then, 
during the short period of six or seven weeks at 
the most, from the age of eight to fourteen, the 
whole time amounting in the aggregate to less 
than one year, his was the privilege, to use the 
language of his teacher, still living in our city, 
" to struggle and wallow through the snow with 
his brothers and sisters to the school-house, and 
after brushing off the snow and warming his 
fingers, hurry to his seat and apply himself to his 
studies as though his life depended on the im- 
provement of the present moment." Such was 
the sum-total of his early education, and such was 
the foundation on which he reared so respectable 
a superstructure of intellectual improvement. He 
lost his mother quite early in life, and the tender 
assiduities of that parent, on whom the future 



34 JONAS CHICKERING. 

prosperity of the boy is so often dependent, were 
consequently unenjoyed. But nature did that for 
him which so many find such difficulty in doing 
for the objects of their solicitude, by infusing into 
his very constitution and temperament that pecu- 
liar delicacy of feeling and propriety of deport- 
ment by which he was so strongly characterized. 
The mother was wanting, and a kind nature sup- 
plied her place. His application in the pursuit of 
knowledge in whatever path he could find it, was 
industrious, nay, absolutely severe. But music 
had for him peculiar charms. Could a foresight 
of the position which he subsequently held in the 
musical world have been presented to him at that 
time, it would doubtless have excited more sur- 
prise than was felt by the fabulous Eastern youth, 
at the wondrous exploits of the slaves of the Lamp 
or of the Ring.* His first studies in the science of 

* The story of " Aladdin; or, the Wonderful Lamp ," is too 
familiar to require comment, but it may perhaps add to the 
zest with which many pore over the pages of the " Arabian 
Nights Entertainment," to know that the lapse of more than 
a thousand years since the reign of the illustrious Haroun 
Al Raschid, the cotemporary of Charlemagne, has wrought 
but little change in the domestic habits, manners, and cus- 
toms of those Eastern nations which figure in the magic 
pages of these romances. Indeed, for a pretty accurate 
description of " Life among" those interesting nations at 



JONAS CHICKERING. 35 

harmony were as rude as those of the classic shep- 
herd, who was accustomed 

u in triviis 
Stridenti miserum stipula disperdere carmen." 

Imagine a boy of twelve years, blowing " the 
squeaking fife" by the side of tall six-feet men, 
keeping time and tune with due precision to the 
tap of the drum — a precision which they in vain 
attempted to emulate — and the scene is before 
you. His next attempt was with the clarionet, an 
instrument which in those days was considered 
altogether too difficult for general use, and profi- 
ciency on which was deemed quite an achieve- 
ment. It was not until after he had commenced 
his apprenticeship that he dared to attempt the 
rudiments of sacred music ; but in a short time, 
such were his diligence and application, he learnt 
to read music at sight, an accomplishment exceed- 

the present time, the descriptions of " Scheherazade" may 
be received as good authority, omitting only the exploits of 
genii, ghoules, and other " machinery" with which they are 
somewhat encumbered. When instruction can thus be con- 
veyed under the semblance of amusement, the volume cannot 
be without its use. There is little to be feared from the 
supernatural features of the work in these days, for 

— " even the child, who knows no better 

Than to interpret by the letter 

The story of a cock and bull, 

Must have a most uncommon skull." 



36 JONAS CHICK E RING. 

ingly rare in this country in those days ; and his 
head, his heart, and his affections were full of 
music. But here nature, though partial in many 
things, seemed to be unkind. " He had little voice," 
to use the language of his teacher, " to give utter- 
ance to his knowledge and feelings." But perhaps 
this gift was withheld in kindness ; for many are 
the trials and temptations of the young man who 
" has a voice" How often has this dangerous gift 
which causes so much delight to others proved the 
ruin of its possessor. And in this case had the 
blessing so much craved been bestowed, how 
many acts of kindness, of liberality and useful- 
ness, might have been left undone.* 

# We borrow the expression of his teacher with regard to 
his voice, which seems to have been of a character but little 
understood at the time, and its place assigned, if assigned 
at all, with but little judgment. Many among us probably 
recollect the time when to " sing counter" was considered a 
very rare accomplishment, and not to be attempted except- 
ing by a master. A voice naturally adapted to that part 
was deemed out of place in the scale as it was then filled, 
and the part which properly belonged to it was engrossed 
by the female voice. We owe it in great measure to the 
pioneer labors of Lowell Mason, Esq., and other gentlemen 
who have followed after him, if not exactly in his footsteps, 
that the parts are now generally filled in our country towns 
and villages by those voices which nature seems to have 
adapted expressly for them, or rather that were originally 
suggested by nature for the peculiar character of the voice. 



STOMAS eHrCKfiRINO. 37 

TPhe cotirse of a man's whole life is often deter- 
mined by some apparently trivial circumstance. 
A misdirected potato in the hands of a mischie- 
vous college-boy has given to the world one of 
the most graceful and accomplished historians of 
*our age ;* and New England itself owes most 
of its pilgrim virtues and success, if not its very 
^xistence^ to the effects of the treachery purchased 
by a base bribed 

It was when Mr. C. was in the last year of his 
apprenticeship, and at the age of nineteen, that he 
first became acquainted with the internal structure 

Mr. C. had a voice, but it was of a peculiar character, and 
to use an expression of his fellow-townsman, although it 
was weak yet " it always told*" His conceptions in music 
were delicate, and his taste far beyond that of the age. It 
will be recollected, however, that we speak now of this 
■country alone. The visits of foreign artists of great celeb- 
rity, and the necessary growth of refinement and taste con- 
sequent upon the advantages of hearing good models, have 
within a very few years contributed much to the diffusion 
<ofa higher standard than was supposed possible a quarter 
ef a century ago. 

# The distinguished author of Ferdinand and Isabella, &c. 

. | The Puritans, who settled in Plymouth, designed to settle 
farther to the south ; but history informs us that the captain 
•of the ship was bribed to carry them to the north of the 
Dutch Possessions, and that they were thus landed on th£ 
bleak and uninviting shores of New England. 
4 



38 JONAS CHICK ERINO-. 

of the piano-forte. An instrument of this kind, 
the only one in his native town, had fallen into 
disuse for the want of tuning and some slight 
repairs; arid although he had seen no other in- 
strument of the kind, and of course was wholly 
unacquainted with its complicated structure, he 
undertook the task of restoring it to usefulness, 
This was a work of no small labor, but fertile in 
expedients, and persevering in whatever he under* 
took, he had the satisfaction of seeing his labors 
crowned with success. How little did he dream 
at that time, that in a few short years he would 
be the master-spirit of an establishment which 
would send forth to the world by thousands every 
year, instruments of such surpassing beauty as to 
defy the competition of the assembled world. 

That he should have failed in a subsequent 
attempt to construct an instrument of another 
kind which he had never seen, without the 
slightest knowledge of its intricate mechanism, 
can excite neither surprise nor disappointment. 
It is true that he attempted to construct an organ, 
but was reluctantly compelled to abandon the 
undertaking. But in this case he only realized 
the truth of the adage, 

" Non omnes possumus omnia." 



.JONAS CHICKERING. 39 

His success in the repair of the instrument to 
which we have alluded, was attended by an 
advantage in his adopted village, which, though 
trivial in itself, undoubtedly influenced his future 
fortunes. A gentleman who had retired from 
business in Boston, settled with his family in 
New Ipswich, and carried with him into his 
retirement another instrument, which was the 
wonder of all the country around. It was natu- 
ral for the family to preserve some few of the 
distinctions in society which were observed in 
the metropolis; and although civil to all, they 
seemed to be disposed to no indiscriminate inter- 
course. To this family our young friend, with 
his respected teacher, was always a welcome 
visiter. His unassuming manners were admired, 
his intelligence was particularly observed, and 
his musical knowledge always rendered them 
the debtors for his visits. But their acquaintance 
with metropolitan manners, customs, and advan- 
tages, gave them, on the other hand, an ease 
which he could not but admire, and we cannot 
help thinking implanted in his heart a yearning 
for the metropolis, as a wider sphere of action. 
On this point, however, we confess that our 
statement is founded mostly on conjecture; but 



40 JONAS CHBCKERM6,. 

the conjecture is not wholly destitute of founda- 
tion. 

We have now to accompany him to the scene 
of his future usefulness.. At the age of twenty he 
came to Boston, not then a city, which he entered 
on the 15th of February ^ 1818, a day somewhat 
remarkable in his history a& the anniversary of 
some of his most important arrangements in 
business, and one of which he often spoke to his 
most intimate friends as a sort of climacteric in 
his fortunes. On the very day of his arrival he 
succeeded in finding employment with a cabinet- 
maker,* with whom he continued and for whom 

* Mr. James Barker, now living in South Boston. Mr. 
Barker's establishment was in Washington street, a little 
to the north of Dover street. Mr. C, then fresh from the 
country, first inquired for work of Mr. James Sharpe, an 
artist who occupied rooms in the same building with Mr. 
Barker. Mr. S. told him that he thought Mr. Barker would 
employ him. It was through this sort of introduction that 
he worked a whole year for Mr. Barker. It was singularly 
fortunate that he was thus early, though accidentally, thrown 
into company with Mr. Sharpe, who besides being an artist 
of great merit and of gentlemanly address and only an ama- 
teur, occupied in our musical circles a position of envied 
notoriety, second to, no one in New England. For a long 
time he was the leader of the music in Trinity Church in 
this city, and one of the most prominent of the members of 
the Handel and Haydn Society. They who have heard Mr. 
Sharpe's "renderings" of the chef d'ceuures of Handel, 
Haydn, and Mozart, anjd other melodies fully as beautiful 



JONAS CHIC KE RING. 41 

lie worked faithfully for the period of one year. 
His character, as described to the writer of these 
pages by one of his fellow-workmen, was that 
of " a first-rate young man." But this was not 
exactly the field congenial to his taste. His 
inquisitive mind had been exercised in his native 
town, and his constructive faculties hud been 
gratified by his success in the restoration of the 
instrument which he had there seen for the first 
time; and, moreover, there was room for the 
exercise of more mechanical talent in an establish- 
ment where those instruments were manufactured. 
These establishments, however, were but few, and 
were regarded with no little suspicion. The for- 
eign productions of Longman, Broderip, Clertfenti, 
Broadwood & Co., to say nothing of the French 
and German instruments, saddled as they were 
with heavy duties and enormous profits of import- 
ers, were the only ones that could find their way 
to popular favor, especially among those whose 
means enabled them to consult their taste. An 
instrument of American manufacture was scarcely 
examined but to be condemned. Furnaces and 

as the voluble chromatics by which they have at the present 
day been in great measure supplanted, will confess that they 
have, for once at least, had the ear fully satisfied. 
.4* 



4$ JONAS CHrCKERfNG*- 

anthracite fires had not then found their way into* 
public or private apartments, and it was not 
deemed necessary in the construction of the in- 
strument to make provision for the necessary 
consequences of an altered atmosphere. It is- 
true that the piano-forte of the beginning of the 
present century, was a vast improvement on the 
spinnets, the harpsichords and clavichords of the 
last ; but in their construction little regard seems 
to have been paid to durability. The quality of 
the tone in particular, although possessed of a 
much greater degree of sweetness than that of its 
predecessors^ was feeble and ineffective, and these 
defects denied it admission to the concert-room. 
Its appropriate sphere was the fireside and the 
family circle ; and although a rare visiter at public 
exhibitions, it appears to have been introduced not 
on account of its own merits, but merely to shoio 
off the skill of the performer. The action of the 
instrument, it is true, was ingenious, but it wanted 
force and effect, and the scale was limited and 
contracted. Besides all this>. the number of those 
whose means allowed the possession of an instru- 
ment so expensive, so cumbrous, so difficult in its 
use, was comparatively smalL It was at such a 
time> and under such discouragements, that the 



JOIVAS CHICKERING. 43 

subject of these pages, at the expiration of the first 
year of his removal from his native town, and on 
the memorable 15th of February, the anniversary 
of his entrance into Boston, went to work with 
Mr, John Osborne,* one of the very few manufac- 
turers of piano-fortes in this city. He continued 
with Mr. Osborne for four years. The division of 
labor which has since been introduced into these 
establishments, was then almost unknown. This 
was perhaps an advantage to Mr. C, as he was 
thereby compelled to study every part of the instru- 
ment, and to make himself acquainted with all of 
its details. His principal duty, however, was the 
manufacture of the keys, a department which he 
brought to great perfection. 

It was while he was with Mr, Osborne, that he 
was introduced to the choir of the West Churchf 

* Mr. Osborne's factory was in Washington street, at the 
south part of the city, the house lately owned and occupied 
by Warren White. Mr. Osborne was the first to use the 
metallic bar, to give strength to the instrument, an improve- 
ment now wholly superceded by the metallic frame. Mr, 
Stewart, with whom Mr. Chickering was subsequently con- 
nected, first introduced the detached sounding-board, which 
was deemed a highly effective invention. Mr. Stewart was 
a fellow-workman with Mr. C. at Mr. Osborne's. 

f Rev. Dr. Lowell's. His fellow-workman was Mr. Joshua 
Stone, the father of Miss Anna, of whom Boston has reason. 



44 JONAS CHIC KEEPING'. 

by a fellow-workman, who at that time was the 
chorister. He continued with Mr. Osborne but 
little more than three years, when a tempting offer 
having been made by Mr. Stewart to enter into 
business on his own account with him, he accepted 
the offer, and we now see him established for him- 
self. It was on the memorable 15th of February 
that he commenced business with Mr. Stewart, but 
the connexion did not turn out as advantageously 
as he anticipated; and although the instruments 
from their manufactory were received very favor- 
ably in the market, and by some were preferred to 
those of other manufacturers, he found it necessary 
to dissolve the connexion after it had continued 
only three years.* He continued the business 
alone for a time, and his inventive genius was 

to- "be proud.. Competent judges from abroad have repeat- 
edly said that had she received a musical education in early 
life abroad, she would have been unsurpassed by any singer 
in the world. We believe, however, that she is fully con- 
vinced that the influences by which she has been surrounded, 
and which have made her what she is, independently of her 
musical talents, have much more than compensated the loss 
of a finished musical education, bought by exposure to 
temptations, dangers, difficulties, and trials, inseparable 
from the profession of an artist of the first class. " 'Tis a 
divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them as we may." 

* Stewart & Chickering's manufactory was in Tremont 
street, on the site of the Savings Bank.. 



JOiYAS OHieKERING. 45 

continually at work to improve his instruments, 
until he had acquired a reputation equal to that 
of any other manufacturer. This was no small 
praise. The Babcocks and the Appletonsf were 
then at work and were backed by a capitalist, and 

f The Babcocks & Appleton worked in Milk street, on the 
site of the building in which Franklin was born, The elder 
Babcock died in 1814. Appleton was afterwards associated 
with AYilliam Goodrich in the building of organs, and they 
acquired a well-deserved reputation throughout the country* 
In voicing and tuning instruments, William Goodrich has 
scarcely been surpassed. His reeds, in particular, were 
smooth and harmonious, and mingled well with the diapa- 
sons, without overtopping them and destroying their char- 
acter. They occupied the building called Parkman's Market 
in Cambridge street. The younger Babcock subsequently 
worked for Mr. John Mackay* a gentleman of thorough 
business talents, but not a mechanic. Mr. Mackay had 
been an experienced shipmaster, but unfortunately lost his 
fortune without losing his reputation,, and availing himself 
of property belonging in his family, he went into business 
in the manufacture of musical instruments. The instru- 
ments — and excellent ones they were for the time — were 
made by Mr. Babcock, and bore the name of i?. Mackay. 
Owing to circumstances not necessary here to be detailed, 
Mr. Babcock left Mr. Mackay 's employ and went to New 
York. But after the erection of the new building in Wash- 
ington street, recently destroyed by fire, Mr. Babcock hav- 
ing become unfortunate in business, returned to the city, 
and was employed by Mr. Mackay, who was then in busi- 
ness with Mr. Chickering. He was an excellent workman 
and a worthy man. He was the first to introduce the iron 
plate into the piano-forte, but it extended only across one- 
kalf of the instruments 



46 JONAS CHICKERING. 

an instrument that bore their name was considered 
but little if at all inferior to those from abroad. 

It was on the same memorable 15th of February, 
in the year 1830, and twelve years after his entrance 
into the city, that Mr.. Chickering entered into busi- 
ness with Mr. John Mackay, who, although him- 
self not a mechanic, fortunately had the command 
of that which mechanics frequently most need, 
namely, extensive capital. A year or two previ- 
ously, during the commercial difficulties of 1829, 
Mr. C. himself had been reduced to somewhat 
straitened circumstances, not on account of any 
want of industry or attention to business on his 
part, but on account of the almost universal pros- 
tration of business throughout the country. When 
the great channels are obstructed, the obstruction 
is felt by all that are dependent for their supply. 
Commerce is the life-blood of society, and no 
department of human labor can be isolated from, 
its influence. Some occupations there are which 
seem to have but little connexion with trade, and. 
on a cursory view we should be- apt to conclude 
that commercial troubles could not reach them. 
But as the life-blood circulates from the heart to, 
the arteries, and thence to the remotest extremities 
of the body, through veins and capillary channels; 



Jt)NAS 'CHI'CKERING. 47 

too minute for distinct vision, so also in the body 
politic, that which circulates through the whole 
system may be traced from its effects. 

" We track the streamlet by the brighter green 
And livelier growth it gives." 

The connexion with Mr. Mackay was produc* 
tive of happy effects. In the prosecution of the 
business which he had undertaken when he in- 
vested capital in the manufacture of those instru- 
ments for which the establishment subsequently 
acquired a world-wide fame, Mr. Mackay, on 
parting with Mr. Babcock, exercised a discrimi- 
nation in the selection of his successor, which 
pays a high tribute to his judgment. It is not 
probable that he made the choice without much 
reading of character, and it was much to the credit 
of Mr. Chickering that " a thorough business-man 
and capitalist" should have selected him. It shows 
the standing of Mr. C. at that time, and the esti- 
mation in which he was held by those who are 
the most critical, and at the same time the most 
correct judges. No one will rashly risk his means 
in a dubious enterprise, and much less will he 
entrust the management of such an enterprise to 
unskilful hands. This care and .precaution will 



48 Jonas 'Chickering, 

proceed with more measured tread when it is but 
the steward of others, Mr, Mackay had previously 
invested his own property in a somewhat similar 
enterprise, which met with a disastrous termination* 
He was now but the agent for the investment of 
the property of others, which might belong to him 
in whole or in part at some future day, but wag 
not yet his own. His practiced eye undoubtedly 
had scanned the merits of all who carried on the 
business, but it rested on one aloiie. The partner- 
ship was commenced, as we have already stated, 
on the 15th of February, 1830, and continued until 
the death of Mr. Mackay in 1841, We are not 
particularly acquainted with the articles of this 
connexion, nor is it material for us to inquire, but 
we may perhaps safely apply the adage, that in 
the division of the spoil, the lion has always the 
larger share. 

Whatever may have been Mr* C.'s proportion 
of the profits of the new establishment, the effects 
of the connexion were immediately visible in the 
freedom which it ga\e him to study the capacities 
of the instrument in the manufacture of which 
they were employed, and to attempt improvements 
of a more thorough nature than any which he had 
hitherto discovered. Many manufacturers would 



JONAS CHICKERING. 49 

have been contented with going on from day to 
day, pursuing the same plans and working on the 
same models which had already begun to fill 
their coffers. But this was not the case with our 
lamented friend. He was not contented to make 
the best instruments that were made; he desired 
to make the best that were possible. His eonver- 
sancy with the instrument had enabled him readily 
to discover the faults in its construction, and to 
apply the remedy. His first attention seems to 
have been devoted to the changes in its construc- 
tion, rendered necessary by the change of the 
atmosphere to which it was to be subjected. 
Anthracite coal was then in full blast. It had 
been admitted into the best houses, and rendered 
more injurious by its use in the furnace ; without 
which a modern house had ceased to be considered 
comfortable. It was observed that all the foreign 
instruments soon became the victims of a desic- 
cated atmosphere, and after the lapse of very short 
periods fell into disuse. It was necessary, there- 
fore, that the frame-work of the instrument should 
be constructed with a view to the climate and its 
effects, and be much more substantial than those 
from abroad. The materials, also, should be pro- 
perly prepared before they were used, and capital 



50 JONAS CHICKERING. 

was employed in procuring them in large quanti- 
ties, and storing them in proper places until their 
seasoning' was fully completed. It was not long 
before the public saw the advantages of this wise 
forecast, and the establishment profited by it. It 
was noticed by judges and amateurs that the in- 
struments from this establishment stood, unaffected 
in any atmosphere by which they might be sur- 
rounded. They were not continually falling into 
disuse from imperfection, and they preserved their 
tune and the quality of their tone beyond a prece- 
dent. This was the great secret of the first impe- 
tus given to the new establishment, and was one 
of the great pillars of their success. 

But this was not all. Having now leisure for 
the study of improvements, Mr. C. began to address 
himself to a department which is always approached 
with caution. The quality of a string is in the 
compound ratio of its length, its diameter, and 
degree of tension ; and here was a field for the full 
exercise of his mind and his experimental industry. 
The wires of the instrument had been compara- 
tively small, and the scale on which they were 
extended was, to say the least, contracted. The 
proper tone to be exacted from a string of a given 
length, diameter, and degree of tension, had not 



JONAS CHICKERING. 51 

been authoritatively given by any author, nor had 
It been supplied by tradition. It was to be learnt 
1 by experiment alone. Of this our friend was aware, 
and he addressed himself studiously to the work. 
Two things were to be avoided. The scale must 
not be so large as to make the instrument too 
cumbrous, and the touch must be easy* Errors in 
either of these particulars would be fatal to success. 
With regard to the scale thus much may be said, 
that he considered it a work never perfected, and 
notwithstanding the success which has crowned 
his labors, he was still engaged in making addi- 
tional improvements to the last hour of his life. 
The beauty and accuracy of the drawing of this 
last work on which he was engaged — a new scale 
for a new instrument — we confess brought a blush 
into our cheeks ; compelled, as we were, to con- 
trast the six or seven weeks yearly instruction for 
seven years enjoyed by the draftsman, with the 
entire years of school and college life of the spec- 
tator. "We rejoiced, however, to see that the unfin- 
ished scale has been completed by his successor, 
and that at least so much of the mantle of the 
father has descended upon the son. 

What the labors of Mr. Chickering have effected^ 
asd what has been the result of the patient indus- 



52 JONAS CHICKERING. 

try and untiring zeal with which he addressed 
himself to the great work, we shall state in the 
words of one whose standing in the musical world - 
is undisputed, and who may speak, as it were, 
" ex cathedra." But we must previously mention 
one great improvement which he introduced, 
the simplicity of which has made it a matter of 
surprise that it was not thought of in the very 
infancy of the instrument. We have already 
alluded to the introduction of the iron plate, as 
the invention of the younger Babcock. It was 
reserved for Mr. Chickering to perfect this im- 
provement, by extending it through the whole 
length of the instrument* It was feared, if the 

# We have taken much pains to ascertain the facts in rela- 
tion to these improvements, and to render strict justice to 
all. Our own impressions are in accordance with what is 
stated above, and we have not been an inattentive observer 
of the improvements which have been introduced into the 
instrument for the last thirty years. Moreover, our state- 
ment is corroborated by the express declaration of a number 
of the very intelligent workmen who have been aids to Mr. 
C. ever since he has been in business. But we have found 
two who assert that Mr. Babcock did carry the iron frame 
through the whole length of the instrument. We find, also, 
this invention claimed, by pretty good authority, for John 
Isaac Hawkins, an Englishman, who constructed an upright 
instrument with a detached sounding-board in an iron frame, 
and the whole so arranged as to be able to meet the atmos- 
phere with compensating powers. " In the bass, it had 



JONAS CHICKERINO. 53 

strings were extended wholly across an iron frame, 
Shat their tune would be wiry, if not dull, and 
the reverberating echoes of the sounding-board 
wholly destroyed. Mr. Babcock's invention, at 
first, certainly, extended but half across the instru- 
ment, and while it was a decided improvement, 
as it in great measure counteracted or at least 
greatly diminished the effect of climate, it correct- 
ed the evil but in part The tuning-pins, which 
were small and frequently became loose, were 
very considerably enlarged, and of course could 
sustain a much greater strain, and the tune was 
rendered doubly permanent Still, as the station- 
ary pins or hooks were still in wood, the strings 
must necessarily have been affected by the dilata- 
tions and contractions caused by the weather, by 
which all kinds of wood are more or less altered. 
Iron and other metals, as is well known, although 
not indifferent to the effects of heat and cold, are 

spiral or heliacal springs by which length was gained ; and 
in the treble, three octaves of equal tension were accom- 
plished by a uniform size of wire. It was patented, but 
didnot take with the public sufficiently to come into notice." 
Whatever may be the claims of others to the originality of 
the entire frame of iron, it will not be denied that it received 
many very valuable improvements from the hands of Mr. C, 
and that it owes much to him that it is not obnoxious to the 
objections that were at first urged against it. 

5* 



04 JONAS CHICKERING. 

not affected by moisture when properly protected ; 
and Mr. Chickering, availing himself of this idea, 
contrived that the strain of tension should be met 
by a material capable of sustaining it.* One end 
of the strings extended across a bridge of metal, 
and the piano-forte in fact resembled a harp in a 
frame of solid iron. The changes of the weather 
could now affect the frame but so slightly as 
scarcely to be perceptible. With this increase of 
strength in the frame, the instrument now admitted 
an enlargement in the diameter and tension of the 
strings, and of course an additional power and 
permanence of tone ; and this addition of power 
in the tone greatly enhanced the value of the 
instrument in the concert-room, where it is now 
a constant attendant, affording a relief to the 
orchestra, and introducing an agreeable variety in 
the entertainment. 

They who have not minutely studied the inter- 
nal structure of the piano-forte, are wholly uncon- 
scious of the beautiful arrangement of mechanism 
by which, on the depression of a key, a sound is 
evoked without a repetition, after the recoil of the 
hammer by which the string is put into vibration. 

# The strings of a grand piano-forte pull with a force 
equal to the weight of more than six tons ! 



JONAS CHICKERING, 55 

Various have been the means by which the desired 
effect has been secured, and the beautiful arrange- 
ment of leverage effected by Erard has met with 
a high degree of commendation from scientific 
authority worthy of respect. Lardner, in his 
philosophical works, has mentioned it with much 
encomium.* To this department of the manufac- 

* Much inventive genius has been spent on this depart- 
ment of the piano-forte, and it would require a volume to 
describe the different means which have been employed to 
accomplish the same end. The action of the clavichord was 
simply a piece of brass pin-wire, which was placed vertically 
at a point where it could be struck or pressed against its 
proper string, the right-hand division of which was free to 
vibrate, while the left hand was muffled by a strip of cloth, 
the object of which was to damp or stop the string, which it 
did the instant the finger was taken off from the key. The 
ancient spinnet was struck by pieces of quill In a manner 
somewhat similar. The action of the piano-forte on its first 
introduction consisted simply of a key, a lifter, a hammer, 
and a damper. The key was the same as that of the clavi- 
chord. The lifter was a brass wire, with a piece of thick 
leather as a head, which was covered with a piece of soft 
leather as a finish. This lifter, when in motion, struck the 
hammer against the string, and thus produced the tone of 
the instrument. The damper followed the performer, and 
stopped the vibrations as quickly as the finger was removed 
from the key. The tone of the instrument was thin and 
wiry, the hammer having only one slight covering of sheep- 
skin upon it. Longman and Broderip were the first to im- 
prove upon this simple arrangement, by the introduction of 
what was called the hopper and the under-hammer. The 
improvement of Broderip was followed by Clementi & Co,, 



56 JONAS CHICKERING. 

tory, Mr. Chickering devoted much time and study. 
We will not follow him in its details, as it can be 

with an additional improvement on the damper, called the 
Irish patent, from the inventor, Southwell, who was an 
Irishman. This invention, which was recommended solely 
by its simplicity, was shortly afterwards superseded by the 
crank damper, which was so generally and instantaneously 
followed, that the inventor was lost sight of in the crowd 
who immediately adopted it. The check was an improvement 
borrowed from the grand piano-forte. We have not room to 
notice the subsequent improvements of Messrs. Broadwood, 
Collard & Collards, Wornum, Zeiter, and the two Erards 
(uncle and nephew, Sebastian the uncle being the principal 
inventor,) nor would it be of much avail to introduce them 
without the addition of complicated diagrams to illustrate 
them. They who are inquisitive upon such subjects, will 
find in other sources detailed accounts of them all, including 
the double or piccolo action of Mr. Wornum, the heliacal 
springs of Mr. Sutherland, Mr. Riley's transposing instru- 
ment, Mr. Motte's sostinente, Mr. Kirkman's octave string, 
and Mr. Trotter's alternated keyboard. Each of these have 
had their day and their admirers, but few of them have 
maintained a permanent celebrity. Mr. Motte's sostinente 
was the application of a cylinder and silk loops to an upright 
piano-forte. The loops were attached to the strings, and 
the cylinder, which was moved by the foot, as it were bowed 
them, and the tones produced were somewhat like those of 
the seraphine. Under Mr. Motte's own hand the instrument 
was pleasing, but few others succeeded in producing the 
desired effect. Mr. Kirkman's octave string was applied as 
the third string to a grand piano-forte, producing an effect 
like the two diapasons and the principal of the organ, but 
much less powerful. It pleased for a time, but it is now 
wholly out of date. Mr. Trotter's aim was high, for it 
embraced a new system of notation, which should do away 



JONAS CHICKERING. 57 

interesting to those only who are engaged in the 
manufacture ; but it will be sufficient to state that 
he has contributed much to the beauty and sim- 
plicity of this department in the manufactory. "We 
shall close our notice of his improvements of the 
piano-forte with the quotation to which we have 
already alluded. The article which we quote is 
from the New York Musical Review, and is from 
the pen of Lowell Mason, Esq., a gentleman too 
well known in the musical world to need any 
endorsement from us. 

" It may be safely said, without in the least 
degree undervaluing the important labors of 
others, that no man has done more towards 
perfecting the instrument which has now become 
indispensable in almost every dwelling, than he 
whose deeply-lamented and sudden death has 
recently been announced. The piano-forte has 
grown up and come to maturity, in this country, 
under the care and direction of Mr. Jonas Chicker- 
ing, late of Boston. The very great change which 
he has made in the capacity of the instrument, 
cannot be realized by any but those who have 

with double-sharps and double-flats and all their accidentals. 
It is to be regretted that he did not live to perform his pro- 
mise. (See Encyclop.) 



58 JONAS CHICKERING. 

actually on hand one manufactured a quarter of 
a century ago, and who have thus the means of 
an actual comparison of the old with the new. 
The improvements in travelling by rail and by 
steam are hardly greater than has been the growth 
and development of the instrument under the 
administration — as we believe the piano-forte 
manufacturers will permit it to be called — of 
Mr. Chickering." 

The connexion of Mr. Chickering with Mr. 
Mackay was terminated by the death of Mr. 
Mackay in 1841. He had sailed to South Amer- 
ica in quest of the beautiful woods which grow 
there in such luxuriant abundance, for the purpose 
of adding to the beauty and durability of their 
instruments. The market here had been drained, 
and the enterprising establishment eagerly availed 
themselves of every opportunity presented of 
collecting the choicest materials for future use. 
Lured by the expectation of finding in the coun- 
tries where they are indigenous, a greater variety 
and perhaps a choicer collection of those beautiful 
materials of which our own market afforded but 
a scanty supply, he sailed in the Luna, for Rio 
Janeiro, in February, 1841, and has never since 
been heard from. The presumption is, that the 



JONAS CHICKERING. 59 

vessel foundered at sea. The loss of Mr. Mackay 
was undoubtedly great to Mr. Chickering as a 
friend, but the establishment, now under the sole 
charge of Mr. Chickering, was so well conducted, 
and all its affairs so well managed, that the public 
were scarcely sensible of any change. Indeed, 
from the commencement of their connexion in 
business, the material part of the control of the 
establishment was entrusted to Mr. Chickering ; 
while Mr. Mackay, with a proper degree of judg- 
ment, confined himself to the management of its 
financial concerns, the purchase of materials, and 
finding a market for the beautiful products of the 
manufactory. 

It will be recollected that Mr. Chickering entered 
into this establishment with little more of capital 
than a fair character and a skilful hand. Ten 
years was but a short period for building up a 
capital based on anything less than the lion's share 
of the profits of the concern. On the settlement 
of Mr. Mackay's interest in the concern, amount- 
ing to a sum counted in hundreds of thousands 
of dollars, Mr. Chickering was the purchaser of 
the whole estate ; and the administrator, at the 
request of Mr. C, made the notes payable on " or 
before " a certain day. The papers having been 



60 JONAS CHICKERING. 

mutually exchanged, the agent of Mr. Mackay, 
one of the most shrewd, as well as distinguished 
and upright lawyers of our city, playfully asked, 
" Do you ever expect to be able to pay these notes, 
Mr. Chickering ?" His answer w^as characteristic. 
" If I had not," said Mr. C, " I should not have 
given them." The notes were in large sums, but 
many months before they became due they were 
respectively paid, until the agent, more than satis- 
fied with the promptness with which they were 
met, begged him no more to anticipate the pay- 
ments, as he could find no better investment. At 
the time of the destructive fire which destroyed the 
large and elegant building on Washington street, 
about a year ago, there remained but twenty-five 
thousand dollars of the whole sum unpaid. Mr. 
C. had, however, offered to pay it some months 
before the fire, but was requested to retain it, as 
an investment. We have it from good authority 
that it has now all been paid, and that no part of 
his property is under mortgage. We mention 
these things thus particularly because that since 
his death sage doubts have been openly expressed 
with regard to the solvency of his estate ; and such 
doubts would operate very prejudicially on his 
worthy successors, as well as throw some little 
stigma on his memory. 



JONAS CHICKERING. 61 

In this connexion we may allude to some of his 
financial transactions, as illustrating the character 
of the man and his own conscious integrity. No 
man, whatever may be his means, can at all times 
readily command the sums which he needs in 
ready money, without some accommodation from 
the bank. On an occasion of this kind he pre- 
sented a large number of notes for discount at one 
of the banks of this city, where he had hitherto 
transacted his business. The president asked him 
who was to endorse the notes. He replied, " I 
shall endorse them myself." " That will never 
do," said the president. " Very well," said Mr. C, 
and immediately taking the notes, he carried them 
to another bank, which immediately, and without 
question, furnished him with the sum which he 
wanted. 

On another occasion, a bank with which he had 
long had transactions, and to which he had as 
usual applied through his clerk for an accommo- 
dation, sent for him, and having heard of a pur- 
chase he had made for the benefit of one of his 
family, expressed their willingness to accommo- 
date him, but wanted some security. "I shall 
give you none," said Mr. C. " I have done my 
business at this bank for a long time, and if you 
6 



62 JONAS CHICKER1NG, 

do not know me, I shall apply where I am better 
known." He afterwards went to another bank on 
the street, which gave him the required accommo- 
dation, and to which he transferred his business. 
A short time afterwards, a director of the bank 
which had refused him, and a personal friend, 
called upon him to endeavor to induce him to 
restore his business to the bank ; at the same time 
offering him in future any accommodation he 
might want. But Mr. C. was inflexible, and could 
not be induced to return to an institution willing 
to suspect him, although his friend the director 
spent with him the greater part of the forenoon in 
representing the loss that the bank would sustain 
by his forsaking it. The business of Mr. C. was 
at that time worth nearly ten thousand dollars a 
year to the bank. 

The new building of Messrs. Chickering & 
Mackay, in Washington street, and which was 
destroyed by fire about a year ago, was erected 
by them in the early part of their connexion, and 
was admirably adapted to the purposes for which 
it was intended. Besides the spacious workshops 
and storerooms it contained, and where over a 
hundred hands were daily employed, there were 
spacious warerooms filled with instruments of the 



JONAS CHICKERING. 63 

most magnificent tone and finish, which daily 
attracted most of the foreign artists who visited 
our city, as well as the professors and amateurs 
who live among us. For many years these rooms 
were a sort of musical "'Change" and scarcely an 
event occurred in our little musical world which 
did not originate, or was not matured there, Here 
Mr. Chickering's mechanical genius was fully 
exhibited in his works, and here, too, they who 
came to see the works became acquainted with 
the man. The facilities which he afforded for 
rehearsals and musical exhibitions, brought him 
in contact with vast numbers of persons of all 
grades of merit, who, in whatever other matters 
of musical taste and judgment they might differ, 
all agreed in the respectful estimation in which 
they held him. The splendid corridors were freely 
thrown open for the displays of musical talent, 
and filled, too, by an appreciating audience of Mr* 
C.'s own selection. A short period before the 
destruction of the building, he increased these 
accommodations by converting a very large avail- 
able space on the second floor into a commodious 
hall, richly carpeted, and in every way furnished 
in a style in which neatness and elegance were 
most happily blended Here were constantly open 



64 



JONAS CHICKERING. 



instruments of most exquisite finish and of the 
highest cost, free to every band that knew how 
to address itself to the keys, and here many an 
artist would resort unbidden to revel in the sweet 
sounds which were obedient to his touch. The 
fame of Mr* C, and his known liberality, quieted 
the fear of being an intruder, and facilities for 
practice were afforded to many who elsewhere 
had little opportunity of striving for that profi- 
ciency which they might here acquire. Many 
an artist has enjoyed this privilege, unquestioned, 
and many an amateur has spent hours in this 
quiet retreat, delighted 

" E'en at the sounds himself had made." 

Meanwhile the proprietor himself was not wholly 
inattentive. He had an ear quick to discern the 
hand of a master ; and oft has he been lured from 
the retirement of his little work-bench, with its 
exquisite appointments, to listen to the delicious 
strains which the strings, obedient to the master's 
hand, would send forth. His quiet step carried 
him to the side of the unconscious performer, who 
on waking from his musical reverie supposed that 
he had for an auditor one of the unpretending 
auxiliaries of the establishment. Many an ao 



JONAS CHICKERING. 65 

quamtance thus made, preceded perhaps only by 
some quiet remark on the difficulty of the perform- 
ance, or the taste and skill of the execution, and 
which at the time only excited a little wonder at 
the discrimination of the temporary critic, has been 
ripened into a lasting friendship, mutually enjoyed 
by kindred souls. 

We have now followed the professional career 
of Mr. C. from his first attempt to repair a com- 
paratively worthless instrument at New Ipswich, 
until we see him at the head of one of the largest 
and best-regulated establishments of the age. We 
have seen him when he first commenced business 
for himself, turning out but about fifteen instru- 
ments in a year,* and those of but modest preten- 
sions, contented with the approbation of a few 
friends and the patronage of the comparatively 
humble, until at last we find him directing the 
energies of a gigantic establishment, with ramifi- 
cations scores of miles apart, sending abroad, not 
only through the length and breadth of his own 
country, but to remote countries of the world, his 

* In the later years of Mr. Chickering's business, he fin- 
ished between fifteen and sixteen hundred instruments every 
year, and at least one grand piano, worth about a thousand 
dollars, every week. 

6* 



66 JONAS CHICKERING, 

unrivalled instruments, bearing away the prizes 
from the assembled world of competitors, and 
pouring wealth into his coffers and distinction on 
the man. And here let us pause one moment to 
see what has been the influence of prosperity and 
reputation on this man. Let us enter his factory 
and see him there ; but first let imagination be 
indulged in its fondness for delineation. Shall 
we pass through doors and passages to dusty 
counting-houses, and over heaps of crude or half- 
finished materials, and be ushered at last into the 
big and burly presence, with a curl on the lip, a 
frown on the brow, a distant loftiness and frigidity 
of manner, a pomposity of expression, and a stu- 
died affectation of importance. First let us inquire 
the way of that modest-looking individual in that 
side-apartment, neat but unpretending, and busily 
engaged at his work-bench. His dress is of plain 
black, and with respect to its cut and fashion he 
appears to be of that class who follow the injunc- 
tion of the poet, 

" Be not thejirst by whom the new are tried, 
Nor yet the last to lay the old aside." 

He wears a white apron, and before him is a 
small lighted lamp, in a case, and he is busily 



JONAS CHICKERING. 67 

engaged in attaching sections of doeskin to small, 
lever-shaped pieces of wood. The only ornament 
which he wears is a single breast-pin, modestly 
but richly set with a gem whose size and water 
betoken considerable value. We inquire for Mr. 
C. A mild and gentle voice informs you that he 
is before you. It is indeed Mr. Chickering him- 
self in one of his happiest moods. Commanding 
the hands of hundreds, his own are never idle ; and 
except when called elsewhere by business, here 
you will find him busied in the same employment, 
or perhaps occupied over a snow-white extent of 
surface, spread with exquisite neatness on a frame 
prepared for the purpose, and drafting a new scale. 
The beauty of the drawing, the accuracy of its 
proportions, and the thorough finish with which 
each part proceeds, recall the labors of the architect 
or the engineer, and you naturally suppose that 
geometry, with its sister art of delineation, had 
lent her aid in early life to guide the hand which 
has plotted the work. You cannot dream that the 
early advantages of the draftsman consisted solely 
in the six or seven weeks yearly instruction of a 
village school. You enter into conversation with 
him, but not a word escapes from his lips which 
betrays a consciousness of merit or of importance. 



68 JONAS CHICKERING. 

Perhaps you may allude to some particular im- 
provement made in the instruments. He will 
perhaps explain its importance, but not one word 
will you hear of its originator. You may perhaps 
refer to some benefaction conferred, or some relief 
bestowed. You may perhaps hear in reply some 
reason for the act, but not who did it. You allude 
to a case of suffering or of want. The necessary 
aid is soon afterwards supplied, but no one knows 
by whom. Perhaps a needy artist exhibits his 
skill in hopes of a remunerating harvest, but fear- 
ing expenses he cannot meet. Some one has 
patronized the exhibition and paid the expenses 
of the hall, while he supposes his harvest proceeds 
from the discernment of the public. Another 
purchases an instrument for which he expects to 
pay by instalments. Pay-day approaches and his 
means have failed. The delinquent approaches 
his creditor with throbbing heart to crave indul- 
gence ; but he finds no hard creditor to meet, with 
threats of cost and difficulties. " If you cannot 
pay me now, pay when you can, or if you do not 
pay at all, I shall never trouble you." Such is 
the reply which quiets his fears and gives ease to 
many an honest heart. Such was Jonas Chicker- 
ing, in his gigantic establishment, and such were 
the principles on which his prosperity was built. 



JONAS CHICKERING. 69 

But this was not all. The many hands and 
heads which he employed had equal reason to 
rise up and call him blessed. He was unwilling 
to avail himself of their talents without a more 
than adequate compensation. In times of diffi- 
culty, when the means of living required a greater 
outlay, he did not wait to be told of the fact. He 
had anticipated their wants, and raised the com- 
pensation which tfaey received. This was the 
more grateful that it was not the result of solici- 
tation.* 

There was one aspect in which we have to 
view his character, in which our lamented friend 
appears to much advantage. There have sprung 
up around and about him many establishments 
from which have emanated many productions of 
excellent character and finish — instruments cred- 
itable to any manufactory. Such rival establish- 
ments often engender bitterness, rancor, and other 
evil passions, and not unfrequently the proprietor 

* We have this fact from the lips of his employees them- 
selves. The gentleman who has the charge of the large 
establishment at the south part of the city — a very worthy 
man, who has long enjoyed the confidence of Mr. C. — told 
us himself that his salary had been raised at three different 
times, and that, too, without even a suggestion on his own 
part. 



70 JONAS CHICKERING. 

of one will be found in the attempt to enhance the 
value of his own productions by depreciating or 
misrepresenting those of his rival. From such 
invidious feelings Mr. Chickering was totally- 
exempt. He knew in what respects his own 
instruments excelled, but he never descended to 
the abuse of others ; on the contrary, he carefully 
abstained from invidious comparisons, and spoke 
with candor and sincerity of the merits of others. 
Purchasers never heard him boasting of his supe- 
riority even in those respects in which his superi- 
ority had long been acknowledged. He preferred 
to lose a customer rather than vainly to extol his 
own works. This is no small merit, especially 
where there are so many rival establishments ; but 
it is due to many gentlemen in this city now carry- 
ing on the same business, to state that there are 
others among us who are actuated by the same 
high-minded principle, and that as a class they 
stand highly in the estimation of the public. 

In this connexion we are called upon to mention 
a circumstance over which we would gladly throw 
the veil of oblivion, did we not feel the necessity 
of some notice of it as a part of his personal 
history. At a time when his reputation had been 
spread widely abroad, a piano-forte manufacturer 



JONAS CHICKERING. 71 

in this city, for reasons which it is not necessary 
to attempt to explain, applied to the Legislature 
of the State for a change of name, with the privi- 
lege to take the name of " Chickering" The 
application was granted, and the name was sent 
forth to the world on the instruments of his manu- 
facture. The object could not be mistaken, and 
our friend had the mortification to see that instru- 
ments from a different manufacturer were mistaken 
for his own. He did not, however, institute a quer- 
ulous litigation about the matter, nor enter into any 
contests of words in the public prints. He pursued 
a wiser course, and quietly represented the facts to 
the same Legislature in an humble petition for 
redress. The consequence was, that the Legisla- 
ture retraced its own steps, and compelled the new 
" Chickering" to resume his former name. We 
make no other comment on this affair than a slight 
alteration of an expression of the classic poet, 

" En quo invidia cives 
Perduxit miseros." 

The establishment of Mr. Chickering was, as 
we have already said, gigantic, but it was not 
concentrated. He had under his control extensive 
buildings in Lowell, in Lawrence, and in Lancas- 



72 JONAS CHICKERING. 

ter, besides a very capacious factory at the south 
part of the city, covering a very large amount 
of land. But his own head-quarters, where he 
himself was always to be found during the regular 
hours of the manufactory, and to which we have 
already alluded, was on Washington street, be- 
tween Essex and Bedford. It was of brick, and 
six stories in height. The basement on Washing- 
ton street was occupied by stores, two on each 
side of the entrance to the warerooms. An easy 
flight of steps led from Washington street up to 
the warerooms and the counting-room, and from 
thence through the warerooms to the large work- 
shops above. In the rear of the second floor was 
a magnificent saloon of very considerable extent, 
furnished with tasteful elegance, and ordinarily 
used for the display of the productions of the 
establishment. It was elegantly carpeted, and the 
hangings on the walls, richly ornamented with red 
and gold, were in exquisite keeping with the whole 
arrangements, filling the eye without fatiguing it 
by a display of mere gaudiness. Here was the 
place where private concerts were given by distin- 
guished strangers and amateurs introductory to 
their public exhibitions ; and here, from a hint 
given by the proprietor, was an audience often 



JONAS CHICKERING. 73 

assembled worthy to hear the performances of any 
exhibitor- Here, too, many artists have made 
their debuts, and many foreign artists their first 
exhibition in the western world* A stranger from 
abroad, whether preceded by a reputation or not, 
would produce his letters of recommendation, and 
this spacious and elegant saloon, warmed and 
lighted, was at his service without cost, and a 
numerous assembly of the most distinguished 
musical critics and amateurs of our city soon 
convened by a word from Mr. C. to witness the 
display of his skill. One who could pass this 
ordeal was sure of patronage at a public exhibition. 
On the same floor with the saloon, and facing 
on Washington street, was the counting-room, 
directly over the stairs. Adjoining was another 
spacious room neatly appointed, in the centre of 
which were two elegant grand piano-fortes, on 
which many of the distinguished pianists, foreign 
and domestic, were accustomed to practise daily. 
The walls of the room were plain, but richly and 
thickly studded with prints and engravings of 
the most distinguished professors and artists of 
the day, singly and in groups, many of which 
bore the autographs of the artists themselves, 
u with their sincere respects to Mr. Chickering." 

7 



74 JONAS CHICKERING. 

Among the losses which he sustained by the 
destructive fire which consumed this building and 
its contents, there was none which was more felt 
than these invaluable memorials. Other things, 
however costly, might be replaced ; but these 
voluntary offerings of respect, from some of the 
most distinguished among the " observed of all 
observers," could not be reinstated. The originals 
were many of them in their graves or in far-distant 
lands, and these were the mementoes of their sin- 
cere esteem. 

By the side of the passage-way leading to the 
upper floor, was a small and retired apartment, 
furnished with a small mahogany work-bench, 
over which was a case of tools of exquisite work- 
manship and worthy the hand of a master. This 
was Mr. Chickering's own head-quarters, and here 
would he be found early and late, and always 
employed. In a small apartment beyond, and 
separated only by a thin partition, his sons, one 
after the other, might be found industriously 
following in the footsteps of their father. "With 
regard to these sons we must be permitted to say 
a word, lest a mistaken idea should go abroad 
with regard to them. It is too often the case that 
when the father has been successful in business, 



JONAS GHICKERING. 75 

his habits of industry, on which that success was 
built, are seldom followed by the sons. But in 
the family of Mr. Chickering such was not the 
case. At the age of sixteen his eldest son com- 
menced a regular apprenticeship at the work- 
bench, under the eye of his father, and followed 
it through every department of the factory, until 
he acquired a degree of skill scarcely inferior to 
that of his father. . The second son, a young man 
of uncommon promise, chose a different vocation, 
and having followed the seas in early life, accom- 
panied his father in his foreign travels, and on his 
return, commenced business for himself in the 
music-store in the basement of the same building. 
His youngest son followed the example of the 
elder, and acquired great skill in adjusting the 
mechanism of the most difficult parts of the in- 
strument, and his works have contributed much 
to the effective parts. The estimation in which 
these sons are held by those who may be consi- 
dered as best acquainted with their ability to con- 
duct an establishment of the kind, may be learnt 
from the following article, which we have taken 
from one of the papers of this city : — 



76 JONAS CHICKERING. 

" Chickering & Sons. We take pleasure in copying 
the following article from the last number of the New York 
Musical Review and Choral Advocate, published by Mason 
Brothers. We give it publicity in justice to the new firm, 
both on account of its truth, and from the fact that it has 
been stated by a correspondent of a New York musical 
journal, c that a rival manufacturer had secured two impor- 
tant improvements, and is now able to fill the space once 
occupied by Chickering : ? 

1 In our last issue we performed the melancholy duty of 
announcing the death of Jonas Chickering, one of the most 
eminent piano-forte makers the world has known. The 
American public felt an especial pride in the mechanical 
skill and genius of Mr. Chickering ; and fears have been ex- 
pressed in various quarters lest zeal in the improvement of 
the piano-forte should slacken, now that the master-spirit 
has gone hence. But we can assure the public that Mr. 
Chickering's mantle has fallen on shoulders worthy to bear 
it. His three sons, Thomas E., C. F., and George, were 
carefully trained in their father's handicraft ; and to them 
he had imparted those secret points of excellence in the 
manufacture of piano-fortes, for which he was himself so 
justly famed. There is a combination of talent in these 
three sons, now brought into active operation, such as was 
never before exhibited in the establishment ; and they have 
determined to prosecute the business with enlarged means, 
increased facilities, and renewed energy — to maintain, and, 
if possible, to surpass, their father's old renown. The firm 
will bear the name at the head of this article. 

1 Thomas E. Chickering (the eldest son) served a regular 
apprenticeship of four years at the bench, under his father's 
own eye. He is a very superior draughtsman, and has 



JONAS CHICKERING. 77 

drawn all the principal scales for some years past. He 
will continue his supervision of this important department, 
C. F. Chickering takes charge of the warerooms and the 
general business of the establishment. George Chickering 
has for several years made the hammers of the grand pianos, 
the most critical and difficult point in the manufacture of 
an instrument. He will continue in this department. Mr. 
George H. Child, who has for a long time been the book- 
keeper and financier of the establishment, will continue in 
that position. Mr. Child is extensively known as one of 
the most reliable and able men in his department in the 
country. 

1 A day or two after Mr* Chickering's death, the workmen 
of the establishment (many of whom are persons of property 
and influence) held a meeting unknown to the sons, passed 
a series of resolutions requesting them to go on with the 
business, and voluntarily pledged themselves, as workmen, 
to do all they could to render it more successful than ever > 
saying that they would not only do the work as well as 
before, but would strive in every way to improve upon their 
past achievements. This incident will serve^to show with 
what spirit the business will hereafter be conducted/ " 

The elegant building which we have just de- 
scribed, containing large numbers of the most 
costly instruments, completed and in parts, with 
a large collection of choice materials in various 
stages of advancement, was totally destroyed by- 
fire on the evening of Wednesday, Dec. 1st, 1852. 
At the time of the fire, Mr. C. was absent in New 

7* 



78 JONAS CHICKERING. 

York, and it may naturally be imagined that the 
knowledge of the disaster would overwhelm him. 
He looked, indeed, with a sober face upon the 
ruins, but the loss of life, by which the disaster 
was attended, gave him more concern than the 
immense loss of property which he had sustained. 
One would naturally suppose that such a calamity 
would have dashed the spirits and cramped the 
energies of one, the labors of whose industry were 
thus suddenly swept away. But his first care was 
for others. The noble set of men in his employ, 
many of whom had sustained great losses by the 
fire, in tools, in clothing, and some also in large 
sums of money, were all immediately notified that 
their salaries would be continued and employment 
furnished them ; and it was not long before the 
hundreds of hands whom the fire had driven from 
the work-bench, were again at work as if nothing 
had happened. A new building just completed, 
on the opposite side of the street, was immediately 
procured, and it was not long before all the build- 
ing resounded with the hum of industry. 

The losses which he sustained by the interrup- 
tion of his business, were nearly, if not quite, as 
great as those occasioned by the devouring element. 
His plans, his patterns, his scales all went " in one 



JONAS CHICKERING. 79 

fell swoop," and his first business was to replace 
them. At a time when life was just beginning to 
decline, and he might reasonably expect that the 
long labors of calculation and design were com- 
pleted, these labors were to be renewed and the 
work done over again. His new scene of labors 
looked directly down upon the ruins of that which 
had been the fruit of his former industry ; and he 
beheld them with. the eye of a Christian philoso- 
pher. The same mild and pleasant voice, the 
same quiet spirit, presided over the new establish- 
ment, and the same flow of liberal charities gushed 
out in an undiminished stream. It seemed as if 
the calamity, which would probably have dulled 
if not destroyed the energies of most men, had 
infused new life into his ; and instead of sitting 
down in moody state over his calamities, he roused 
his energies and prepared to exert them on a more 
extensive field of action. One thing seemed to 
affect him deeply and to tears, but they were rather 
the tears of joy. The sympathy felt by the public 
in general, as well as by his immediate friends, 
affected him to the quick. It was not an indiffer- 
ent or formal expression, but a universal outbreak, 
visible in deeds as well as words. One of the first 
salutations which he received after he had learnt 



80 JONAS CHICKERING. 

the extent of his loss, was from a broker in State 
street, offering the use of any sum his occasions 
might require. Even his family physician urged 
upon him the use of a considerable sum which he 
happened then to have in bank, and from all quar- 
ters offers of credit or accommodation were made 
with a liberality which would have sought no other 
object. It w^as universally acknowledged that there 
was not another individual in the community whose 
losses would be regarded with so universal a feel- 
ing of regret. Such, indeed, was the feeling, that 
had he been stripped of everything but his charac- 
ter and his hands, his credit and his fame would 
in a very short time have reinstated him. 

It was not long after the destruction of his man- 
ufactory in Washington street, that he commenced 
his plans for that gigantic structure now nearly 
completed near Chester Square, at the south part of 
the city. This structure, besides being highly 
ornamental to the city, was designed and is well 
calculated for the employment of a large and effec- 
tive mechanical force, and we are gratified to learn 
that the designs of Mr. Chickering will be fully 
carried out by his enterprising sons. 

We have obtained an electrotype copy of an 
engraving of this building, with some account of 



JONAS CHICKERING. 83 

the plan and the intended arrangements. It is 
calculated that it will afford ample accommodation 
for the constant occupation of at least four hundred 
workmen ; and the internal arrangements are so 
disposed as to allow no retrograde movement. 
The raw materials will enter at one door, and 
passing successively through every department, 
will pass out of another door at the other extremity 
of the building, in a state of perfect completion. 
The building itself, as will be seen by the engrav- 
ing, is in the form of a hollow square. Its length 
in front is two hundred and forty-two feet, and 
the wings two hundred and sixty-two feet on the 
north, and two hundred and fifty on the south, the 
whole covering a space of between sixty and sev- 
enty thousand feet of ground. The machinery 
will be moved by a steam-engine of a hundred 
and twenty horse-power.* The building is five 
stories in height, and the rooms in each story, from 
the lowest to the highest, are each eleven feet from 

# The term " horse-power," as applied to a steam-engine, 
is a term designed to represent a force which can raise a 
weight of thirty-three thousand pounds (or sixteen tons and 
a half) to the height of one foot in a minute. Hence an 
engine of a hundred and twenty horse-power represents a 
force capable of raising one thousand nine hundred and 
eighty tons to the height of one foot in a minute. 



84 JONAS CHICKERING. 

the floor to the ceiling. The top of the building 
is flat, sheathed with metal, and painted. Every- 
thing required for the completion of the instru- 
ments, even to the castors, is to be manufactured 
in this building, with the exception only of the 
large castings. The wood will here be cut from 
the logs, the veneers sawed, and all so perfected 
that we may almost say that forests will enter at 
one door, and come out finished piano-fortes at 
the other. 

Such was the gigantic undertaking proposed by 
our lamented friend, which he lived only to see 
commenced and in a state of satisfactory progress. 
" Man proposes, but God disposes." The plans 
of the father have been carried out by his enter- 
prising sons, and the building is now steadily 
advancing to completion. To arrange all of the 
details of such an enormous establishment, and 
to set its complicated machinery into a regular, 
clock-like movement, will require time ; but many 
months will not elapse before it will be alive with 

" the hum 
Of industry, the rattling hammer's sound, 
Files whizzing * * * echoed # * 
On the fast-travelling breeze." 

To supply the place of the warerooms which 
were destroyed by fire, Mr. C. obtained, on a long 



JONAS CHICKERING. 85 

lease, the building known as the Masonic Temple, 
directly opposite the Mall, between Winter and 
West streets, and having a side-entrance on Tem- 
ple Place. This building, long known on account 
of its admirable lecture-room and other apartments 
used for offices and private schools, and still more 
for the peculiarity of its architecture, standing out 
in ignominious contrast with the graceful symme- 
try of the Ionic front of its nearest neighbor, St. 
Paul's Church, he converted into a magnificent 
musical temple. We speak of course of the inte- 
rior. The exterior was almost past redemption, 
and if traced to its prototype, if such can be found, 
will probably lead one to no other than the Dis- 
order of architecture. The building is of granite, 
and it must be confessed that its structure gives 
evidence of strength and durability. The facade, 
with its port-hole windows, 

" If shape that may be called, which shape has none," 

is strongly suggestive of the baronial retreats in 
the time. of Stephen of England, or perhaps of the 
" donjon keeps" of later days. But there was 
room in the interior for the display of considerable 
taste, and the situation was perhaps the very best 
and most convenient in the city. For the institu- 

8 



86 JONAS CHICKERING. 

tion by which it was erected we entertain profound 
respect, but that respect has not blinded our eyes. 
Its present appearance, under the alterations ef- 
fected by Mr. C, and more especially since it has 
become suggestive of mechanical skill and indus- 
try, is greatly improved. Regardless of expense 
in the remodelling of the interior of this building, 
and with a determination to make it surpass in 
beauty and convenience the splendid apartments 
which the fire had devoured, he gave full vent to 
his taste in the supply of his wants, and has pro- 
duced a result highly creditable to his ideas of 
architectural propriety. The front on Tremont 
street opens on a neat and spacious stairway lead- 
ing directly to the main hall, on which no expense 
has been spared, nor lavishly wasted. It is car- 
peted with Brussels of a green ground, and the 
drapery of the windows richly corresponds. The 
hangings of gold and satin paper, relieved by pan- 
els and pilasters, are in exquisite keeping, and 
interspersed with mythological emblems of great 
beauty, while gothic arches of flowers bestriding 
the pilasters, give an exquisite finish to the design. 
Two large ante-rooms, one on each side of the 
stairway, flanked by the counting-room and richly 
furnished, occupy the remainder of the second 



JONAS CHICKERING. 87 

floor. The basement of the building, to which a 
side-entrance on Temple Place opens, is appro- 
priated to the repair of instruments. A small but 
neat apartment above the counting-room, simply 
furnished with the necessary implements of his 
profession, with a small oval window overlooking 
the whole establishment, was the head-quarters of 
Mr. Chickering himself; and here he drew his 
scales and prepared his models and directions for 
every department of his manufactories ; and it was 
here, too, it may emphatically be said, was Mr. 
Chickering himself to be seen. Elsewhere met, 
his native diffidence was triumphant, and eclipsed 
the man ; but here it could be seen that he was 
the presiding genius — the head by which every- 
thing was directed. It was here that we were 
privileged to see the last work on which he was 
employed — the scale to which we have already 
alluded — and here, too, we have also been allowed 
to see that scale completed by his son and succes- 
sor, and can bear witness from ocular demonstra- 
tion that the skill of the son is in no respect infe- 
rior to that of the father. 

In the sketch which we have now given of Mr. 
C.'s professional progress, we have as yet made no 
allusion to his European tour, undertaken as it 



88 JONAS CHICKERINGr 

was solely with a view to relaxation after long 
years of professional toil. The World's Exhibi- 
tion had many allurements? and besides, he was 
interested in that exhibition on account of the 
specimens from his own manufactory which he 
had sent thither. Of this tour he has left few 
memorials except the bare record of the time when 
he left one place and reached another. But one 
incident, which must have gratified him exceed- 
ingly, occurred at the exhibition in London, 
"While he happened to be standing with his son 
near the instruments from his own manufactory, 
several of the continental artists of great celebrity 
passed by him, and after cursorily viewing the ' 
tasteful richness of the cases, seated themselves 
successively at the keys. He had the satisfaction 
of seeing them touched by the hands of these 
masters, and to hear the unmeasured terms with 
which the instruments were commended. The 
artists themselves were totally ignorant that the 
maker was near them, and for that reason their 
commendations were so much the more to be 
prized. A more substantial, although a less im- 
partial testimonial of their merits, was received on 
the distribution of the prizes ; for his instruments 
were not neglected in the award, and but for some 



JONAS CHICKERING. 89 

alleged informality in their "being entered" for 
which he himself was not obnoxious to blame, it 
was the general opinion that he would have borne 
off one of the first prizes, A medal, however, 
could not be denied him. 

We have thus far alluded only to Mr, Chicker- 
ing's professional career. The collateral relations 
which he sustained were not less creditable and 
honorable, His musical knowledge, taste, and 
discrimination were acknowledged by that associ- 
ation which for a quarter of a century has confes- 
sedly stood at the head of all musical associations 
in the Western world. We mean the Handel and 
Haydn Society, over which he presided for some 
seven or eight years. While he was at their head 
the association enjoyed a degree of prosperity and 
exerted an influence unknown before, and the 
jarring elements which unfortunately will always 
mingle where harmony alone ought to prevail, 
were reconciled. So great a degree of confidence 
was felt under his directions, that the desired and 
appropriate harmony always did prevail. The 
financial concerns flourished, and the association 
received such an impetus that its future perma- 
nence and prosperity were secured. Under his 
administration, also, the best talents and the best 



90 JONAS CHICKERING. 

services were secured, and the public ear was 
gratified by a variety in the public exhibitions as 
gratifying as it was new. It seemed as if new life 
and new energy had been infused into every part 7 
and the prodigious influence which he wielded in 
the musical world was all concentrated in the revi- 
val of an interest in the association, which, to say 
the least, was drooping, if not dormant. 

The splendid saloons connected with his ware- 
rooms, as we have already stated, were the daily 
resort of all the musical talent which visited our 
city ; and he found means to press into the service 
of the society, an amount of science, talent, skill, 
and taste, that could not fail to infuse into the 
association, and to the public at large, a degree of 
musical knowledge never possessed before, and 
thus to raise the standard of musical excellence. 
And this was also attended by another advantage. 
It is well known that there are many excellent 
persons among us whose conscientious scruples 
have prevented their attendance at concerts and 
other public performances of secular music, who 
have been attracted by the sacred concerts and 
oratorios of the society. This class of persons 
have thus without offence been gratified by the 
opportunities afforded to hear performances which 



JONAS CHICKERING. 91 

have been preceded by a world-wide fame. They 
have been permitted to see the lions without going 
into the den. 

The history of music in this vicinity is more 
closely connected with that of no individual more 
than with that of our lamented friend. They who 
can recollect the manner in which sacred music in 
particular was conducted some thirty or forty years 
ago, will not fail to recollect the subordinate part 
assigned to the female voice, and the monotonous 
waste of vocal sweetness. We have it from good 
authority that it was while Mr. C. was a member 
of the choir of the West Church, that the musical 
director of that choir first attempted the daring 
innovation of changing the parts and giving to the 
females the part now universally conceded to them. 
How far Mr. C. himself was concerned in this step 
of advancement we are not informed, but we know 
that his judgment could not but have approved the 
change. 

He joined the Handel and Haydn Society in 
October, 1818. His native diffidence for some 
time kept him in the shade, but his name appears 
among the officers of the society in 1831, and in 
that year he was placed on three important com- 
mittees. One of these committees was charged 



92 JONAS CHICKERING. 

with the examination of candidates for admission 
into the society. Another was the one to whom 
the expediency of purchasing a new organ for the 
society was submitted. He appears at the head 
of this latter committee, and we have it from good 
authority that he was the mainspring of the action 
which resulted in the purchase of the noble instru- 
ment now owned by the society. 

Having served his constitutional limit of three 
years on the board of trustees, he was raised to the 
vice-presidency of the society. His native gene- 
rosity was here displayed by an act of entire self- 
forgetfulness. Mr. George J. Webb had then but 
recently taken up his residence in our city, and 
Mr. Chickering, with a just appreciation of the 
great merits of Mr. Webb in the musical world, 
was anxious to pave the way to the elevation of 
Mr. W. to the presidency. As a preliminary 
measure, he therefore resigned the vice-presidency 
himself, in order to make room for Mr. W., who 
was through his influence chosen in his place. In 
the year 1837, Mr. Webb was chosen president of 
the society, and Mr. C. was placed in the chair 
of the vice-president. In the following year, on 
account of the pressure of business, he was com- 
pelled to decline any official position in the soci- 



JONAS CHICKERING. 93 

ety, but his interest in it did not flag, and his 
influence in the musical world enabled him to be 
greatly beneficial in enlisting into its service talent 
and skill which could not easily have been ap- 
proached by any one less known in the highest 
departments of the profession. 

Aware of the power that he wielded, and admir- 
ing the generous and unassuming character of the 
man, many of the prominent members of the 
society, on the retiring of Mr. Webb, called upon 
Mr. Chickering with the urgent request that he 
would allow his name to be placed among the 
candidates for the presidency of the society. His 
consent was reluctantly given, and from that time 
until the year 1850 he was annually elected presi- 
dent, and every time unanimously. Musical people 
are notorious not only for the sweet harmony which 
they can make with their voices or their instru- 
ments, but for the discord which too frequently 
obtains among themselves. The unanimity with 
which Mr. C. was chosen every time that his name 
was used as a candidate, is an honorable testimo- 
nial to his character. These facts we obtained 
from the official organ of the society, Mr. Fair- 
banks, from whose pen we transcribe the following 
additional particulars : — 



94 JONAS CHICKERING. 

" The services which Mr. Chickering rendered 
to the Handel and Haydn Society during the 
seven years that he presided over it, the interest 
which he exhibited, and the expenses he would 
allow himself to incur, cannot be fully known nor 
counted in figures. His rooms were at all times 
open for the use of the society, for meetings and 
rehearsals ; his instruments were ever ready at its 
wish, and transported from hall to hall as occasion 
might require, free of charge, and music of high 
and sterling character imported at his own expense 
for its practice, until his generosity became prover- 
bial on the lips of the whole society. 

" In all that he felt and in all that he did, he was 
always the modest, unassuming man; and with 
all the favors he bestowed, he would never allow 
himself to be released from the calls and assess- 
ments which from time to time it was necessary 
to impose upon its members. 

" "Were any sick, needing comforts or the 
wherewithal to purchase comforts, his purse was 
open and his hand extended. In two instances 
the whole funeral expenses of members were 
defrayed by him, and only known to me in the 
friendly and confiding manner of our conversations. 

" I called upon him once for assistance for the 






JONAS CHICKERING. 95 

widow of a deceased member, who needed present 
aid to enable her to arrange for the support of her- 
self and children l How much do you require ? ' 
The answer was, < A hundred and fifty dollars.' 
i Get what you can from among our members 
and come to me for the balance.' The balance 
was large, but it came w T ith so much sympathy 
and kindness, that the amount seemed increased 
in the very deed of giving. I know of others who 
have partially depended on him for support ; and 
these things, added to his general charities, must 
have relieved his purse of large yearly sums. 

u His appreciation of talent and willingness to 
encourage it, is exemplified in the case of the 
editor of the Musical Journal.* 

" His modest, unassuming, and ingenuous ap- 
pearance has led some to suppose that he lacked 
strength of character, and was easily swayed by 
surrounding circumstances. This I think not true. 
His quick perception told him wrong from right, 
and his acts followed accordingly. No sophistry 
could change his purpose, or induce him to pass 
over an impropriety against good breeding or 
good resolves. At heart he was good, and from 
that spring of life all his actions were prompted, 
and I trust all his hopes realized. 

* See that editor's own acknowledgment, on page 23. 



96 JONAS CHICKERING. 

" ' Be just and fear not,' the motto of the associ- 
ation of which he was president at his decease, he 
exemplified in his daily walks with men, in his 
official position, and in the retirement of his home ; 
and his biography can do great service to those 
who follow him, could its lessons but reach the 
many who need the instructions it must contain." 

Such is the testimony of one who knew r him 
well, and who, in an official capacity, was often 
with him. 

We have said that the scientific knowledge of 
Mr. C. was acknowledged by the Handel and 
Haydn Society in making him their president. 
His mechanical talents received also an equally 
honorable testimonial from the Massachusetts 
Mechanic Association, when they called him to 
preside over that highly respectable body. As in 
the one case he was preceded by men whose skill 
and talents and standing in society were fully 
acknowledged, in the Webbs, the Wellingtons, the 
Winchesters, and the Masons, that in former years 
directed the proceedings of the society ; so also in 
the other, he could look at a long line of equally 
honorable predecessors in the chair of this ancient 
and honorable association. The Reveres, the 
Hunnewells, the Cottons, the Russells, and the 



JONAS CHICKERING. 97 

host of other distinguished gentlemen who have 
presided over this time-honored association, were 
men of character and consideration, whom their 
fellow-citizens delighted to honor, and it was no 
small distinction to be called to fill their places. 
The selection which they made when they called 
him to the chair was mutually honorable ; and it 
may safely be asserted, to use the words of one of 
the most honored and most honorable of the sons 
of our city,* " that he fulfilled the whole idea of a 
President of a Mechanic Charitable Association." 
His fellow-citizens also were not backward in 
their honorable notices of his worth, and his native 
diffidence could not conceal the hold that he had 
on their favorable regard. He was called from 
the seclusion in which he lived to represent them 
in the councils of the State, and not unworthily 
did he represent them. It is true that he made no 
flourishes of oratorical display, no a speeches for 
Buncombe," but he carried into the representative 
halls an honesty of purpose, an inflexibility of 
principle, a purity of heart, which were proof 
against the corrupting influences which sometimes 

* The Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, in a sentiment sent to 
the vice-president of the association on the occasion of the 
late festival of the M. M. C .A. 



98 JONAS CHICKERING. 

find their way into high places, and " hang hissing 
at the nobler man below." He was the very model 
of the man described by the classic poet, in those 
familiar verses, 

" Justum ac tenacem propositi virum 
Non civium ardor prava jubentium 
Non vultus instantis tyranni 
Mente quatit solida."* 

Wherever we follow our lamented friend we 
find him the object of respectful regard. The 
church of his adoption, whose rites and obser- 
vances were scrupulously observed, was not back- 
ward in the acknowledgment of his worth, and 
eagerly availed themselves of the benefit of his 
judgment Here, among gentlemen of almost 
fastidious conservativeness, he was cordially hailed 
as a peer, and invited to their most important 
councils. He was made chairman of an impor- 
tant committee, who were charged with the direc- 
tion of one of the most solemn and interesting 
parts of the services of the church; and by his 
instrumentality that part has been performed in a 
manner which has challenged the admiration of 

* Neither the frowns of a tyrant, nor the clamors of a 
people deeply sunk in depravity, can affect the man who 
acts from good and fixed principles. 



JONAS CHICKERING. 99 

all who have ever been present at the solemn 
services. He has secured to the church a degree 
of talent in this department second to none in the 
country ; and it may truly be said that there the 
Lord is worshipped " in the beauty of holiness.'' 

But it was not in an official capacity that he 
was most regarded in the church of his adoption ; 
for, to use the language of the Rt. Rev. Rector, 
" while his treasures extended the gospel to others, 
he received that gospel for himself; and, at the 
banquet of the Lord's Supper, openly confessed 
that Master, whose sacrifice, believed in with the 
heart, is the only true and scriptural motive for 
charity to man." 

There were other relations in which our 
lamented friend was placed in which it would 
be difficult for us to follow him, as we are 
unfortunately il uninitiated" The Masonic insti- 
tution and the brotherhood of Odd Fellows 
embrace on their rolls the names of large num- 
bers of our friends and fellow-citizens who would 
lend their influence to no society of questionable 
usefulness; and we see that the subject of these 
memoirs stood high among the respectable mem- 
bers of these institutions, and among the foremost 
in their regard. We must leave his eulogium in 



100 JONAS CHICKERING. 

these relations to some other hand with whom he 
has "ivorked" in secret conelave, or in a more 
public manner administered to the relief of a 
needy or erring brother. But this much we can 
say without fear of contradiction, that every asso- 
ciation within his reach which had for its object 
the relief of suffering humanity, the dissemination 
of correct habits and principles, the diffusion of 
useful knowledge, or the elevation of human 
nature from the sinks of degradation and deprav- 
ity, was sure of his name, his influence, and what 
is more, his "material aidP 

We have already stated that Mr. C was but 
little indebted to his native town or to the town 
of his adoption for the advantages of an early 
education. "What little of debt that he owed for 
such advantages as he enjoyed, he nobly paid. 
In reply to a call from his former townsmen, who 
were anxious to increase the means of education 
in that town, he authorized them to draw upon 
him yearly for the sum of sixty dollars during 
his life. He subsequently made this benefaction 
permanent by a donation of a thousand dollars, 
in lieu of the yearly assessment. 

Having now followed the subject of these 
memoirs through his professional career to a 



JONAS CHICKERING. 101 

highly prosperous and successful business, and in 
those public relations into which he was reluc- 
tantly drawn, we propose in conclusion to take a 
glance behind the curtain, and view him in those 
private scenes where the heart, the temper, the 
disposition, in short, the whole character, is laid 
open, without palliation and without reserve. 

A man may make an excellent mechanic, and 
yet be destitute of those qualities which are neces- 
sary to pass current in society. A great lawyer is 
not always a good man, and a physician may 
be an excellent adviser when " pain and sickness 
wring the brow," and yet never sought for as a 
companion, or desired in the social circle. The 
relations which a man sustains at home are of that 
searching character, that little can be left behind 
in the exhibition of the man. The relations of 
society do not forbid the buskins, and the outward 
character may appear smooth and polished, and 
exhibit none of those asperities which a closer 
view might bring to light Society take, in general, 
but a telescopic view of character, and see but 
little of that unevenness of which the fairest and 
roundest surfaces are rarely destitute. He that 
takes but a distant view of that " bright empress 
of the sky" that rules the night, sees but the perfect 

9 



102 JONAS CHICKERING. 

roundness of her outline and the silver soberness 
of her light, little suspecting perhaps that the sur- 
face is really rough and jagged and uneven, and 
in all probability less regular and even than that 
of the earth on which he dwells. The domestic 
relations, on the contrary, give the microscopic 
view of the character of the whole man, and per- 
haps present some of its features in bloated dimen- 
sions merely because the field of vision is too 
contracted to take the whole into one view. 

In endeavoring to present to view some of the 
outlines of the domestic character of Mr. Chicker- 
ing, we are aware that we are treading upon 
consecrated ground, but we enter the field boldly 
because we know that there is nothing to conceal. 
We touch his domestic relations with the same 
willingness that we record the long list of his 
public and private benefactions ; and indeed if we 
would select any particular trait to hold up to 
general approbation, we should accompany him 
to his fireside, and see him as a husband and a 
father, as well as a generous host. In society we 
admire his noble virtues, but at home we cannot 
refrain from loving the man. His conjugal rela- 
tions had never grown old, and indeed it would 
have been difficult to determine whether his feel- 



JONAS CH1CKERING. 103 

ings as a husband, or as a father, glowed with the 
greater brightness and warmth. He was not one 
of those who carry the cares and the anxieties of 
business to the domestic hearth, and rail against 
the coldness and ingratitude of the world. The 
conversations on business were closed with the 
doors within which it was carried on, and his 
successes were matters of delight to him, chiefly 
because he was thereby enabled to increase the 
comforts of those loved objects whom he delighted 
to see enjoying them. No public honors or dis- 
tinctions had for him one-half of the attractions of 
his own fireside, nor was there a shade there to 
cloud the brightness of the domestic affections. 
Of the happiness of his conjugal relations we have 
already spoken. Early in life he had been united 
to the object of his affections, and his affections 
never wavered. The harmony and devotion 
which existed between the husband and the wife, 
presented a scene of domestic happiness refreshing 
to behold. It was his delight to see her abroad 
on the missions of charity in which she delighted, 
and to afford her the means of active benevolence. 
Nor had he reason to question the judgment with 
which those means were applied. Her needle as 
w^ell as her purse was often drafted into the service 



104 JONAS CH1CKERING. 

of the poor, nor was an application made for relief 
to which she did not lend a willing ear. It was 
his chief care to see that his children were brought 
up in correct and proper habits, and in his family, 
affection was a more powerful stimulus than the 
rod. The father's approbation was the mainspring 
of every action, before age had given maturity to 
principle, and afterwards, when principle had 
ripened into action, it was the dearer because both 
were in unison. He had a careful eye to the pos- 
sible change of the current of prosperity and the 
transitions of fortune, and prepared to guard his 
children from the dangers of a reverse. With this 
end in view, he was anxious to educate their 
hands, as well as their heads and their hearts, and 
to train them to such a course, that should reverses 
come they would not be dependent on the charities 
of others, nor at a loss what to do. But this disci- 
pline to which his sons were subjected — a disci- 
pline at which many a rich man's son would have 
rebelled — was so tempered with the mildness of 
affection, that it was enjoyed rather than endured, 
and met with cheerfulness because it gratified the 
father. Such was the confidence of the son in the 
father, such the strength of affection and the desire 
of mutual happiness^ that no gratification was 



JONAS CHICKERING. 105 

withheld on the one part that could be enjoyed 
without danger ; and on the other, no labor was 
too great that was in conformity with the wishes 
of the father. We speak with more confidence on 
this subject because we happen to know ; and we 
confess that we have a strong desire to correct any 
erroneous impressions that may have gone abroad 
from the representations of those who have seen 
but the half, and knowing of the indulgences, have 
winked out of sight the previous labors by which 
they were earned. It is a rare attainment for a 
rich man to know how to temper indulgence with 
requisition ; but they who know the true character 
of the sons will confess that in this respect Mr. 
Chickering was singularly fortunate. It was a 
subject of much gratification to him in the latter 
years of his life, when warned by the symptoms 
of failing nature, that the management of his 
affairs might be safely committed to the hands of 
his sons ; and that whatever an overruling Provi- 
dence might have in store for him, he would in all 
human probability leave behind him those who 
were able and worthy to wield the concerns of the 
gigantic establishment which he had reared, or, in 
case of necessity, to rear it anew. The education 
of his children from their earliest years had been 



106 JONAS CHICKERING. 

the object of his tender solicitude. No pains nor 
expense was spared to make them what they 
should be; and he had the envied satisfaction of 
seeing them, what it had been his most anxious 
wish to make them, worthy and industrious men, 
respecting themselves, respected by all who knew 
them, and worthy to be his successors. His 
daughter, also — and what father does not look 
doatingly on his daughter — beautiful and accom- 
plished, the joy of his fireside, the object of his 
cherished affection — he had lived to see well 
affianced and ready to be settled for life. His 
two elder sons had married sisters, the lovely 
daughters of a gentleman of much consideration 
in society; and the frequent "reunions" of the 
family, graced as it was by these lovely additions, 
were the sources of pure and unalloyed delight. 
The elder of these sisters had for several years 
been an integral part of the family, and between 
her and the father had sprung up an affection and 
regard as strong as the ties of blood. The younger 
sister, whom but a few short days had seen the 
blooming bride of the second son, had a history 
somewhat allied to romance. She had risked her 
own life for the preservation of her mother and 
sister when in imminent peril from the wave, and 



JONAS CHICKERING. 107 

her endeavors were crowned with the happiest 
success. It was to her a grateful recollection that 
by the preservation of the life of her to whom 
under Providence she owed her being, she had in 
some measure repaid the debt, and become closer 
allied by the sense of mutual obligation. These 
lovely women were never more happy than when 
they could administer to the comforts of their 
adopted father, whom they loved with the purest 
filial affection. A little incident, which we have 
from good authority, trivial perhaps in itself, but 
interesting as indicative of the feeling existing, we 
will here introduce. At a time when the energies 
of the manufactory were under considerable pres- 
sure to fulfil orders, the elder son had taken out 
of town to his beautiful residence a considerable 
number of the most delicate parts of the action of 
the instruments for adjustment. On the following 
day the lovely wife of the elder son bounded into 
the presence of Mr. Chickering, and spreading out 
before him the little works in a state of completion, 
" Here, father," said she, "here are your hammers." 
On his expressing surprise at the speedy comple- 
tion of the work, she explained by saying, u Tom 
and I sat up all night to complete them." " My 
dear," said Mr. C, " I am sorry that you did that." 



108 JONAS CHICKERING. 

" Then, father," said she, " you should not have 
said that you wanted them as soon as possible." 
This little incident speaks volumes. In what 
manner could the affection of the daughter and 
the character of the son have been better exem- 
plified. 

"We have one circumstance to mention, as cred- 
itable to the husband, as the incident which we 
have just related is so to the wife. Not long ago 
Mr. C. left Boston on a visit to Niagara Falls, 
leaving the sole management of his establishment 
in the charge of his eldest son. He was of course 
particularly anxious that the works should not flag, 
and that the orders which he had engaged to sup- 
ply should be met with promptness and fidelity. 
On his return to the city he had the satisfaction 
to find that more instruments had been completed 
during his absence, and while the gigantic estab- 
lishment was under the temporary management of 
his son, than during any previous correspondent 
period when he himself had directed the energies 
of the manufactory. 

Indeed it was a source of great gratification to 
the father to find that in every department of his 
establishment this son was a universal favorite, 
and it gave all the workmen as much pleasure 



JONAS CHICKERING. 109 

to follow his directions and to comply with his 
wishes as to follow his own. Nor was this feel- 
ing of attachment and personal regard confined 
to the eldest It was seen that each, as opportu- 
nity presented, was anxious to follow in the foot- 
steps of the father, and that the three presented a 
phalanx of talent and energy, of correct and indus- 
trious habits, of mechanical genius and business 
talent, that gave assurance that if the energies of 
the father were withdrawn^ the efficiencies of the 
establishment would suffer little diminution, and 
everything connected with it was thus stamped 
with durability. This tribute to the sons is sincere 
and well-merited, and given from long personal 
knowledge. 

We have now followed the course of our la- 
mented friend from his early youth to the closing 
years of his life, from the day of small things 
to a state of well-earned and deserved pros- 
perity. We have seen that, under Providence, 
his state of ease, prosperity, and renown was the 
fruit of his own labors, of his own correct princi- 
ples, of his own industry, backed by no common 
genius. We have followed him through his whole 
life, and seen all the outgoings and incomings of 
the man, and we have discovered nothing, abso- 
10 



110 JONAS CHICKERING. 

lutely nothing, in the whole review, that charity 
could wish to palliate, the most critical eye could 
disapprove, or over which the hand of friendship 
would throw a veil. 

In the commencement of this tribute we in- 
dulged in a few remarks upon the influence which 
every human being exerts in the sphere in which 
he is placed, and stated our belief that not an 
act could be performed, a word spoken, or even 
a thought conceived, that is not attended by effects 
as real and as lasting as the duration of the im- 
mortal soul. The poet has partly exemplified our 
meaning : 



" The blue mist slowly creeps 



Curling on the silver lake. 

As the trout in speckled pride 
Playful from its bosom springs, 

To the banks a ruffled tide 
Verges in successive rings/' 

On life's broad ocean this "verging" of the tide 
may be imperceptible from the controlling effects 
of stronger energies, but still they exist, and pro- 
duce their effects of action and reaction. In the 
moral world nothing is seen but in its effects on 
conduct and character, but the same physical law 
of reaction has its corresponding analogy. In this 



JONAS CHICKERING. Ill 

view of the subject we must be struck by a consi- 
deration of the influence exerted in the world by- 
such a man as Jonas Checkering. "We have little 
reason to exclaim in the words put into the mouth 
of the ambitious Roman by the immortal bard, 

" The evil men do lives after them ; 
The good is oft interred with their bones." 

No good or bad influences can die. They must 
produce their effects, and these effects must be the 
secondary causes of other effects, and so on in 
endless succession. It is not the high and mighty, 
in the estimation of the world, from whom the 
most powerful influences derive their origin. 
From the retired seclusion of private life we have 
presented an instance of a man who, in his day 
and generation, has done more by the example of 
a whole-souled liberality, an unostentatious flow 
of discriminating charities, a life of purity, of 
principle, and of active benevolence, than they 
who have dethroned monarchs and swayed the 
destinies of empires. 

It remains for us now only to recite the par- 
ticulars of the end of that man whose whole life 
seemed but a state of preparation for that change 
which awaits us all. It was about fifteen years 



112 JONAS CHICKERING. 

ago that he was first attacked by a momentary 
paralysis, which affected first his hands and subse- 
quently the whole of one side. The attack was 
of short duration, and as he speedily recovered 
from it, it excited no alarm. Previous to his 
European tour, he complained to the writer of 
these memoirs that he felt a sensation in the head 
for which he could not account. Several years 
ago he received the second attack, as he was 
riding out over the Tremont Road with Mrs. C. 
The reins fell from his hands, and he sank down 
in the vehicle in a state of insensibility. He was 
taken home in a carriage belonging to some friends 
who were fortunately passing, and in a few days 
was sufficiently restored to resume his usual occu- 
pations. The third and most severe attack fell 
upon him on the evening preceding the marriage 
of his second son, namely the 28th of November 
last. The last and fatal attack was at the house 
of a friend, whither he had gone apparently in his 
usual state of health, on the evening of the 8th of 
December. While in conversation, his head sud- 
denly dropped upon his breast and he commenced 
vomiting. He soon became insensible, in which 
state he remained until his death, which took place 
shortly after his removal to his own residence, 



JONAS CHICKERING. 113 

namely in about an hour after the attack. He 
was attended by his family physician, Dr, Lewis, 
and Dr. George H> Gay, but it was evident that 
he was beyond all medical skill. The lancet was 
applied, and all the means employed known to 
the faculty, with no avaiL He died at about 11 
o'clock in a state of apparent unconsciousness, 
Thus terminated a life of industry and usefulness 
seldom equalled and never surpassed, and the 
legacy which he left in name and fame to his 
afflicted family richer far " than all the wealth of 
Ormus or of Ind." 

The news of this sad event spread with rapid 
wings over the whole city, and the morning papers 
were filled with expressions of universal regret. 
It was received in all parts of the city, and indeed 
wherever it reached, as a public calamity, and as 
it passed from mouth to mouth, the tears which 
could not be repressed, and which would not be 
concealed, bespoke the sincerity of the blessings 
which were heaped upon his memory. 

The notices given in the papers and periodicals 
of the day of the sad solemnities with which he 
was attended to his final resting-place at Mount 
Auburn, were full and worthy of the subject. We 
shall copy a few of them in an appendix. "We 

10* 



114 JONAS CHICKERING* 

shall close this sad memorial with a short notice 
of his personal appearance, which we think w T ill 
not be wholly uninteresting to those who have 
never seen him. He was about the ordinary 
stature. His complexion was not particularly 
marked, although the features of his face had 
something of the hue of the sunny South. His 
forehead was fine, and the dark hair by which 
it was o'ercanopied, was luxuriant and naturally 
disposed to a graceful curl. Here and there a 
silvery tint betrayed that the prime of life had 
passed. His eyes were not large, but full. The 
nose was inclined to the aquiline, but not in a 
very prominent degree. His mouth, when closed, 
betrayed but little emotion, but seemed to indicate 
a thoughtfulness not expended on the objects of 
sight. His gait was peculiar, with a slow but 
not a measured tread. His head naturally pro- 
truded a little in advance of his person, as if he 
were disposed that caution should be his pioneer, 
but it was carried with a degree of ease that 
gave no evidence of effort. His beard, naturally 
disposed to luxuriance, was trimmed with care, 
and his dress, though scrupulously clean, betrayed 
no sign of inordinate regard. The bones of the 
cheek, although not prominent, were clearly de- 



JONAS CHICKER1NG. 115 

fined, and the face itself, although not so round 
as to indicate fullness of habit, was neither 
lank nor wanting in a fine expression. His 
chest was somewhat broad, with a little round- 
ness in the shoulder, and his whole appearance 
indicated more of the sanguine than of the ner- 
vous temperament. His movements were slow, 
but with no approach to awkwardness. His 
whole bearing betrayed no pretense. Among his 
friends and familiar acquaintances he was cheerful 
and animated, and although he found it difficult 
to overcome his native diffidence, yet when he 
was drawn out, he was not without a vein of 
humor. Among the prominent traits of his char- 
acter we must not fail to mention his sincerity. 
Whatever he said he purposed, and whatever he 
purposed he did, if it was within the bounds of 
human possibility. He was particularly anxious 
not to injure the feelings of others ; and this very 
anxiety has been the foundation among some who 
knew him but little, of the charge of vacillation. 
He maintained his opinions with firmness, but 
he was neither stubborn nor reckless of those of 
others. He was not of the number of those who 
think that opinions once formed should never be 
altered. He always kept his mind open to the 



116 JONAS CHICKERING. 

strongest reason, and was willing to admit new 
light when he could thereby modify the views 
which he had previously taken. He had no relish 
for innovation unless it brought with it decided 
improvement, and was contented first to prove 
all things and then hold fast that which is good. 
He considered society composed of others besides 
himself, and preferred in all moral concerns to 
follow the old and beaten path, rather than with 
reckless boldness to strike out a new one for him- 
self. In short, he was one of those most useful 
members of society who looked " not only on his 
own things but likewise on the things of others ;" 
and with broad and generous views, a heart full 
of the susceptibilities of human nature, a peaceful, 
contented, and humble spirit, he has left the world 
with the blessings of thousands and without an 
enemy. 



APPENDIX. 



We select the following notices of the death 
and funeral of our lamented friend, from the 
periodicals of the day. Our limits will not allow 
more copious extracts. We may safely say that 
no private individual has called forth so universal 
a burst of public feeling and regret. Politics and 
local interests seem for the time to have been 
forgotten in the generous emulation of eulogy, 
panegyric, and expressions of deep regret, as for 
a public loss, with which the public prints, without 
distinction, have been inspired. We present them 
in the order of their date, omitting such portions 
as are elsewhere repeated. 



From the Boston Herald of Bee. 9th, 1853. 

A GOOD MAN FALLEN. 

Death has, within the last twenty-four hours, struck down 
in our community, without a moment's warning, one whose 
loss will be most deeply and widely deplored by our citizens. 
Mr. Jonas Chickering, one of the most useful, charitable, 



118 APPENDIX. 

and noble-hearted men that ever lived, died suddenly last 
evening, about eleven o'clock, at his residence in this city, 
from a shock of apoplexy. Soon after the attack, Mr. 
Chickering became insensible, and so remained until his 
death. Dr. George H. Gay and Dr. Winslow Lewis were 
called to the bedside of the dying man, but it was evident 
that human agencies were of no avail. Bleeding was 
resorted to as the only expedient to give motion to the 
stagnant blood, but this afforded no relief. Mr. Chickering 
had suffered from previous similar attacks, the last of which 
occurred on the 28th of November, the wedding-day of his 
son, Major Charles Francis Chickering. He had rallied 
speedily from the immediate effects of these attacks, but 
they had considerably impaired his strength. 

These apoplectic fits were not induced by a full habit of 
body, but rather from opposite tendencies, as Mr. Chickering 
was a thin, and not a strong man. The seat of the disease 
was in this instance in the head rather than the heart, and 
was doubtless caused by severe mental application, as Mr. 
Chickering, in addition to the immense weight of business 
affairs upon his mind, has been much absorbed in the con- 
struction of some new improvement in the piano of late, 
devoting many hours each day to it with intense application 
in his private cabinet at the Masonic Temple. 

The deceased was fifty-seven years of age, and has left 
behind him four children, three sons and one daughter, the 
two oldest sons being married. 

Mr. Chickering was President of the Massachusetts 
Charitable Mechanic Association, and has been identified 
with numberless public charities. A list of his private acts 
of benevolence, known only to himself and the recipients of 
his bounties, and the God of the poor and fatherless, would 



APPENDIX. 119 

fill volumes. In his manners he was one of the most quiet 
and unassuming gentlemen that ever lived, and none will 
remember his every-day life and conversation with more 
fondness than his employees, by whom he was universally 
beloved. 

Boston has been deeply indebted to the genius, enterprise, 
and business energy of Mr. Chickering. The immense busi- 
ness which he has built up here, not only for himself, 
directly, but for others, has proved honorable and profitable 
to the whole city as well as to himself. Most of the busi- 
ness of manufacturing pianos by other establishments than 
his mammoth manufactory, the aggregate of which is very 
large, has sprung, indirectly, from the results of his efforts, 
and thousands of persons in this city are the recipients of 
the good that accrues from this source. He has gone from 
us, and suddenly, but he has left behind him a glorious 
example of energy and probity in business, and of Christian- 
like benevolence and humanity. 



From the Boston Traveller of Dec. 12, 1853. 
DEATH AND FUNERAL OF JONAS CHICKERING. 

Mr. Chickering's death was appropriately and feelingly 
noticed at Trinity Church, yesterday, where Mr. Chick- 
ering long attended public worship, and where he was a 
communicant, a vestryman, and chairman of the committee 
on music. 

Bishop Eastburn noticed the death in his sermon ; and 
after divine service, a special meeting of the rector, wardens, 
and vestry of the church was held, and a series of appro- 
priate resolutions was offered by Hon. R. C. Winthrop and 



120 



APPENDIX. 



adopted by the meeting, and a copy of the Bishop's sermon 
was requested for publication. 

The passage in the Bishop's sermon which particularly 
referred to Mr. Chickering was as follows : — 

" My Brethren, — Our Heavenly Father, in addition to 
the admonitions which are conveyed in Scripture, sometimes 
stimulates our reluctant hearts by the awakening lessons of 
his Providence. Such a voice we hear speaking to us on 
this day ; when one of our number, who on Sunday last, in 
company with the members of his household, drew nigh to 
the table of the Lord, we now miss from his accustomed 
place within these consecrated walls. This solemn and sud- 
den event must show us, if anything can, the propriety of 
bestowing our gifts for the enlargement of Zion while life is 
with us ; seeing that we know not how soon these opportu- 
nities, so graciously vouchsafed, may be removed forever. 
But the departure of this excellent person whose loss we 
deplore, does more than this ; it draws our thoughts to the 
remembrance of an example rich beyond ordinary measure 
in that virtue of Christian charity, which we are this morn- 
ing called to exercise. 

"My beloved friends, I feel that I should be wanting at 
once in what is due to the memory of the departed, and in 
ministerial fidelity to the living, did I not on this occasion 
speak of our admirable friend as he is truly worthy to be 
described. You all know what he was. This city knows 
what he was. Through God's blessing on the quiet, unob- 
trusive, but unremitting energy of his own character, and 
the power of his own genius, he became the proprietor of an 
ample fortune. And how did he use that success ? His 
heart and hand were ever open to the claims of a suffering 
world. His beneficence, never sleeping, cheered the desolate 



APPENDIX. 121 

hearthstone of the fatherless and the widow, encouraged the 
fainting, admonished the erring, and raised up the fallen ; 
while, in regard to the building of sanctuaries, the extension 
of the knowledge of salvation, and the support of Christian 
institutions, his assistance was made thrice welcome by the 
cheerfulness with which it was bestowed. 

" And here, too, let it be remembered — for it is impor- 
tant to bear it in mind — that, in the case of our friend who 
has finished his labors, deeds of liberality were not put forth 
as something distinct from, and not necessarily to be built 
upon, religion as their legitimate foundation. While his 
treasures extended the Gospel to others, he received that 
Gospel for himself; and, at the banquet of the Lord's Sup- 
per, openly confessed that Master, whose sacrifice, believed 
in with the heart, is the only true and scriptural motive for 
charity to man. 

" My brethren, this good man has gone to his rest amidst 
the bendictions of thousands and the love of all. Had he 
been here in the body to-day, how gladly would he have 
thrown his tribute into the Lord's treasury ! And how 
powerfully does his death call upon us to follow him, so far 
as he followed Christ ; and to cast our willing gifts to-day, 
and to-morrow, and unto the end, towards the hastening of 
that time when all the kindreds whom the Maker has crea- 
ted * shall be His people, and He shall be their God.' " 



At a meeting of the workmen in Lemuel Gilbert's piano- 
forte factory, held on the morning of the 12th inst., the fol- 
lowing preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted : 

Having heard with the deepest regret of the sudden death 
of our friend and fellow-citizen, Jonas Chickering, we, as 
piano-forte makers, have 

Resolved, That we are deeply sensible of the loss to the 
11 



122 APPENDIX. 

community of a most estimable citizen and a sincere friend 
of the mechanic ; and that, as a mark of respect, we will 
close our establishment for the day and attend the funeral 
services. ' 

Resolved, That we sincerely sympathise with the family 
and friends of the deceased, and that we would give them 
our heart-felt feeling. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be presented 
to the family. 



The Funeral. The funeral of the late Mr. Chickering 
took place this morning, and was largely attended. The 
workmen who were in the employ of the deceased, assembled 
at the warerooms at half-past ten o'clock, from whence they 
proceeded to his late residence, and were joined by the other 
piano-forte makers of the city, under the marshalship of Timo- 
thy Gilbert ; members of the Handel and Haydn and of the 
Musical Education Societies ; the Massachusetts Charitable 
Mechanic Association (of which the deceased was President :) 
St. Andrew's Lodge and St. Andrew's Chapter, and the 
Grand Lodge of Massachusetts of Free and Accepted Ma- 
sons, and the De Molay Encampment of Knights Templars. 

These societies formed in procession, and escorted the 
body, followed by the family and immediate friends of the 
deceased, to Trinity Church, where the funeral services 
were performed. The pall-bearers were George Darracott, 
John Eayner, Stephen Fairbanks, E. A. Raymond, John B. 
Hammatt, and Robert Hooper. 

At precisely a quarter of twelve the body reached the 
church, and was met by the officiating ministers, Bishop 
Eastburn and Rev. J. Cotton Smith. They preceded the 
body up the aisle, the assistant minister reading the opening 
sentences, commencing, "lam the resurrection and the life, 
saith the Lord ; he that believeth in me, though he were 



APPENDIX. 123 

dead, yet shall he live ; and whosoever liveth and believeth 
in me, shall never die." At the conclusion of the sentences, 
the body was placed in front of the chancel. A dirge was 
then played on the organ, after which the Bishop read the 
lesson commencing at the twentieth verse of the fifteenth 
chapter of Corinthians. The 124th Hymn was then sung, 
commencing, 

"Hear what the voice from Heaven declares 
To those in Christ who die ; 
Released from all their earthly cares, 
They'll reign with him on high." 

At the conclusion of the prayer, the remainder of the 
service — which is usually performed at the grave — was 
gone through with, and the benediction pronounced ; after 
which the body was removed from the church, the procession 
was re-formed, and escorted the body and mourners to 
Cambridge bridge. From this place the procession dis- 
persed, and the body was conveyed to its final resting-place 
at Mount Auburn. 

The procession was quite large, being composed of eight 
hundred and fifteen persons. In the ranks were Hon. 
Abbott Lawrence and Robert C. Winthrop, Gen. Henry K. 
Oliver, and many other distinguished citizens. In the 
church we noticed Mayor Seaver, Hon. Eufus Choate, and 
a large number of the clergy of the Episcopal Church. 

The church was crowded to its utmost capacity, and there 
were hundreds in the street who were unable to gain admit- 
tance. 

All the piano-forte manufactories and music-stores in the 
city were closed, as a token of respect to the deceased ; and 
by order of the Mayor the various church-bells in the city 
tolled a knell "to the memory of departed worth." 



124 . APPENDIX, 

From the Evening Transcript of Dec. 12, 1853. 
THE GOOD MAN'S EXAMPLE. 

We have rarely known so general and spontaneous a 
feeling of sorrow to pervade our city, as the past few days 
have revealed. We meet with men in every walk of life 
who feekthat they have lost a personal friend — one whose 
memory they will ever cherish, and whose influence and 
example will be felt in our city for years to come. The 
public journals have echoed the sentiments of the whole 
community in their eulogies upon the life and character of 
the deceased ; and various organizations have united in 
tributes of regard to the memory of their departed associate. 

Yesterday, the pulpit enforced its sacred lessons, and 
appealed with renewed power in favor of the Christian 
graces and virtues, by referring to the worth of goodness 
and the beauty of holiness, as illustrated in life and character. 

We are permitted to publish the concluding paragraphs 
of a discourse preached by the pastor of one of our city 
churches yesterday morning, in which allusion was made to 
the character of him whose loss is mourned by men of all 
parties and sects. This tribute derives additional interest 
from the fact that it was delivered in a church of another 
denomination from that with which the deceased usually 
worshipped. 

ct FOLLOW TEAT WHICH 13 GOOD." 

" Meditation tells us that this is the wisdom, the glory, 
and the destiny of man. The Bible, by its precepts, and 
especially by its strong and saintly characters — Moses 
and Samuel — John and Paul — above all by the Highest 
name — calls on us to scorn all the earthly ignorance that 
would put anything before goodness, either for beauty or 



APPENDIX. 125 

reward. Yes, and that wider bible of human life, which 
God is unfolding to our eyes every day in society, endorses 
the wisdom of his transcribed Word, and enforces in every 
way its joyous and serious appeal. 

" A noble character, a beneficent career — particularly 
one that has just floated off from the gravity of this world, 
and hangs in spiritual beauty amid the still atmosphere of 
death, before it loses itself among its kindred in the all- 
surrounding heaven — is it not a radiant and sweet appeal 
to our sentiments against the follies of selfishness and plea- 
sure and unbelief? What argument for piety and holy 
service so insinuating and conclusive as the influence of a 
noble man, that has just closed his mortal methods of benefi- 
cence, and leaves his place sacred among his fellows, while 
his moral beauty gleams with the halo of eternity about it, 
before the senses startled with the tidings that he is dead ? 
The bad man, or the useless, cold-hearted man dies, and like 
the cuttle-fish sheds a black medium around him, through 
which we do not care to pierce with any interest or hearty 
sympathy. But the good man departs, and his finished 
character becomes a luminous sermon, with chapters printed 
in an undying tissue, in favor of charity and meekness and 
kindly sentiments and a reverent mind. The lives of such 
support the interests of society and virtue ; their memories 
are like holy chants and cheering songs. 

" Boston has lost many such during the past year — men 
whose influence in the pulpit, where the ' almond tree ' 
flourished in saintly beauty on their head ; in the market, 
where their integrity supported the laws of honor ; and in 
the chambers from which they dispensed their unfailing 
charity, were orations in behalf of religion and the gospel. 
And now that one more is departed, and the blessings of 
11* 



126 APPENDIX. 

friends and dependents follow his quick ascension, with 
melody more sweet than his taste had patronized, let us 
turn it in the church to the account of goodness ; let us see 
more clearly in the light of such departures the glory of the 
beatitudes ; let us pray for the consecration and the love 
that will fit us for the call that may come at midnight, to 
the great sphere of service, and that will leave the echo 
here of a holy music ceased." 



From the Boston Post of Dec. 12, 1853. 

At a special meeting of the Rt. Rev. the Rector, tho 
wardens, and vestry of Trinity Church, held immediately 
after divine service on Sunday morning, Dec. 11, 1853, on 
motion of Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, it was 

Resolved, unanimously, That we have heard with deep 
regret of the sudden death of our associate and friend, Jonas 
C nickering, Esq., whose long and faithful services to this 
church, as a vestryman and as the chairman of its committee 
on music, have won for him our cordial esteem and regard, 
and whose character as an exemplary Christian and as a 
benevolent and excellent man, has secured him the respect 
of our whole community. 

Resolved, That we will attend the funeral of Mr. Chick- 
ering at this church to-morrow at 11 o'clock, and that the 
rector and wardens be requested to take measures for the 
appropriate services and solemnities, and to make all neces- 
sary arrangements for the accommodation of the various 
associations who have proposed to be present on the occasion. 

Resolved, That the Rt. Rev. Rector be requested to 
furnish a copy of his discourse delivered this morning, or 
of such portions of it as related to the character of our 
deceased associate, for publication. 

Resolved, That an attested copy of these resolutions be 
transmitted to the widow and family of Mr. Chickering, 
with the assurance of the sincere sympathy of every member 
of this board in their afflicting bereavement. 



APPENDIX. 127 

The motion was accepted, and Messrs. J. M. Wightman 
and James Lee, Jr., were appointed a committee of arrange- 
ments, and the meeting adjourned. 

Attest, James Lee, Jr., Sec. of Vestry. 

At a meeting of the workmen in the employ of Messrs. 
Chickering & Sons, held on Saturday, 10th inst., for the 
purpose of making arrangements to attend the funeral of 
Mr. Chickering, it was 

Resolved, That it is with feelings of the deepest regret 
we have learned of the death of our much lamented friend 
and employer, Jonas Chickering. 

Resolved, That we deeply sympathize with the family 
and friends of the deceased. 

Resolved, That we assemble on Monday, the 12th inst., 
at 10 o'clock, for the purpose of paying the last tribute of 
respect to one whose memory will ever be cherished by us 
all. 

Resolved, That a copy of the above resolutions be pre- 
sented to the family of the deceased. 

Stephen E. Clapp, 
John Sharland, 
Calvin Allen, 
D. T. Haraden, 

D. T. Haraden, Secretary. Committee. 



From the Boston Journal of Dec. 13, 1853. 

FUNERAL OF JONAS CHICKERING. 

Trinity Church was crowded yesterday morning with 
mourners and friends at the funeral of Mr. Chickering. 
The genuine kindness of heart, the probity, honor, upright- 
ness, and public spirit of the deceased, had peculiarly 
endeared him to a large portion of our citizens, and the 



128 APPENDIX. 

general feeling of grief at his sudden death, found expres- 
sion in this last tribute of respect to his inanimate remains. 
If the church could have been enlarged to three times its 
present capacity, it would have been found too small to 
accommodate those who sought to be present. Summer 
street, Hawley street, and the corners of Washington street, 
were filled with people long before the funeral cortege 
arrived at the church. The look of sadness upon the faces 
of all, and occasionally a dropping tear, attested the universal 
grief. 

In respect to the memory of the deceased, all the music- 
stores in the city were closed, and the piano manufacturers 
all suspended business during the day, and employers and 
men expressed their sympathies with the afflicted family. 
Nearly all our resident musicians were also present. 

At 11 o'clock the procession was formed at the residence 

of the deceased, and proceeded to Trinity Church in the 

following order : 

Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association. 

Officers of Handel and Haydn Society. 

Grand Lodge of St. Paul, and St. Andrew's Chapter of Odd 

Fellows. 

Royal Arch Masons. 

De Molay Encampment Knights Templar. 

Suffolk Lodge of Independent Order of Odd Fellows. 

Officers of Mechanic Apprentices' Library Association. 

All the Workmen in Mr. Chickering's employ. 

The Hearse bearing the Body. 

PALL-BEARERS. 

Edward Raymond, 



John Rayner, 
John B. Hammatt, 



H. N. Hooper, 
George Darracott, 
Stephen Fairbanks. 



The first three are Masons, and the last three are ex- 
Presidents of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics' 
Association. 



APPENDIX. 129 

With all the above charitable and benevolent bodies, Mr. 
Chickering was connected, either as member or officer. 
Hon. Robert C. Winthrop and Abbott Lawrence walked 
in procession with the Mechanics' Association. Josiah 
Quincy, Jr., Mayor Seaver, and many other prominent 
men, were present in the procession and in the church. 

Arrived at the church, the procession parted to right and 
left, and the body and the family passed into the church. 

The galleries of the church Tiad been thrown open to the 
public at 10 o'clock, and in a few moments they were 
densely packed with ladies. On the right, on the floor of 
the house, were placed the members of the Handel and 
Haydn Society, of which Mr. Chickering had been Presi- 
dent. On the left were seated two hundred workmen, in 
the employ of the deceased. The relatives and mourners 
were seated in the centre, and the various benevolent and 
other societies filled the remainder of the body of the house. 
The arrangements of the funeral services jvere under the 
direction of Mr. J. M. Wightman. 

The body was met at the door by Bishop Eastburn and 
his assistant, who commenced reading the burial service of 
the Episcopal Church, beginning, " I am the resurrection 
and the life." While the mourning family and friends 
were being seated, those in the house remained standing, 
and the organ played music appropriate to the occasion. 

The fifteenth chapter of 1st Corinthians was then read, 
after which a hymn was sung, commencing, 

" Hear what the voice from heaven declares 
To those in Christ who die." 

The singing was very solemn and impressive, rendered still 
more so by the evident emotion of the singers. 



130 



APPENDIX. 



After the singing, the Bishop read the remainder of the 
beautiful Episcopal burial service over the coffin, committing 
" earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust." 

The services in the church being concluded, the procession 
re-formed, and passed through Winter and other streets to 
Cambridge bridge, where those who chose accompanied the 
remains to Mount Auburn. 

The funeral was one of the largest and most solemn and 
impressive which has taken place in this city for a long time. 



From the Evening Transcript of Bee. 13, 1853. 

At a large meeting convened on Monday morning from 
the various piano-forte manufactories of this city, the follow- 
ing resolutions were unanimously adopted : 

Resolved, That in the death of our esteemed fellow- 
citizen, the late Jonas Chickering, our profession has lost 
a worthy member, whose unostentatious enterprise, industry, 
liberality, and gentlemanly demeanor, is a worthy example 
for our highest ambition. 

Resolved, That the various objects of benevolence, to 
which he was a cheerful contributor, and especially the 
humble poor, whose wants were seldom if ever disregarded 
by him, have lost a friend, the remembrance of whom will 
bring sadness to many hearts. 

Resolved, That in this dispensation of Divine Providence 
his family have met with an irreparable loss, and that we 
tender to them our kindest sympathy. 

Resolved, That we as a body will attend his funeral, and 
cause our places of business to be closed during the services. 

Resolved, That the foregoing be signed by the chairman 
and secretary of the meeting, and a copy be sent to the 
bereaved family, and that the same be published in the 
daily papers. T. Gilbert, Chairman. 

George Hewes, Secretary. 

Boston, Dec. 12, 1853. 



APPENDIX. 



131 



From the Evening Transcript of Dec. 13, 1853. 

MASSACHUSETTS CHARITABLE MECHANIC 
ASSOCIATION. 

OFFICIAL PROCEEDINGS ON THE OCCASION OF THE DEATH OF 
THEIR LATE PRESIDENT, JONAS CEICKERING, ESQ. 

Mr. Chickering died on Thursday evening, the 8th inst. 
At 12 o'clock, on Friday, the government held a special 
meeting. Upon his decease being announced, a committee 
was appointed to wait on the family to express the sympathy 
of the board with them in the bereavement, and the desire 
to unite in their associate capacity in the last tribute of 
respect to his remains. 

In accordance with these arrangements, the association 
assembled in their rooms on the morning; of the funeral, 
and after the passage of appropriate resolutions, proceeded 
under the direction of Charles G. King, Esq., Chief Mar- 
shal, and assistants, to the late residence of the deceased in 
Boylston street. 

With other associated bodies they then preceded the 
corpse to Trinity Church, and at the conclusion of the 
burial services, in the same order accompanied the body to 
Cambridge bridge on foot, and from thence followed in 
carriages the remains to Mount Auburn. 

In the funeral train, Messrs. Stephen Fairbanks, James 
Clark, George Darracott, and Henry N. Hooper, ex-Presi- 
dents, acted as pall-bearers in behalf of the association. 

The Hon. Joseph T. Buckingham, the senior ex-Presi- 
dent, offered the following resolutions, which were unani- 
mously adopted : 



132 APPENDIX. 

That Almighty Being, whose righteous prerogative it is 
to create and to destroy, in whose hand is the life and 
breath of all mankind, and whose impartial justice deals 
out to all his creatures the results of his wise counsels and 
his inexorable decrees, having taken the President of this 
Association from the scene of his earthly labors and useful- 
ness, it becomes us his associates, while we meekly and 
reverently submit to this dispensation, to express our pro- 
found respect for the virtues of the deceased, and to mingle 
our sorrows for a loss which, as a body and as individuals, 
we feel painfully severe. Be it therefore, 

Resolved, That we deeply deplore the death of Jonas 
Chickering, the President of our Association — a man who, 
in all his relations with us, bore his faculties with unaffected 
modest} r , and cheerfully aided all projects designed to pro- 
mote its usefulness and secure its respectability ; whose 
persevering industry, mechanical skill and ingenuity, up- 
rightness in dealing, and urbanity in deportment, obtained 
universal respect and confidence; whose manly fortitude 
enabled him to meet misfortune without repining ; and 
whose ever-active energy, undismayed by the occurrence of 
desponding calamity, were the theme of public admiration; 
in short, whose whole intercourse with the world was regu- 
lated by a strong and universal spirit of humanity, will 
give to his memory an enduring fragrance in the hearts of 
his associates, and demand respectful commemoration from 
the community which he served, honored, and adorned. 

Resolved, That this testimonial of our regard be pre- 
sented to the family of our deceased friend and President, 
in whose sorrows we deeply sympathize, and for whose 
consolation we devoutly implore the influence of that blessed 
Power which alone can communicate relief to bereaved and 
desolate hearts. 

Published by order of the Government of the Association. 

Dec. 14, 1853. 



APPENDIX. 133 

From the Christian Witness of Dec. 16, 1853. 

At a meeting of the Corporation of the Free Church of 
St. Mary for Sailors, held on Tuesday morning, Dec. 13th, 
1853, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted : 

Resolved, 1. That this Corporation deplore the loss they 
have sustained by the death of their friend, brother, and 
coadjutor, Jonas Chickering. 

2. That we deeply sympathize with his family in this 
painful visitation of God, and sincerely do we hope and 
pray that the faith he evidenced may be theirs as well as 
ours, to aid us in the proper receiving and viewing this 
afflictive dispensation. 

3. That though saddened by the loss we and the whole 
community have suffered, still there is left to us his bright 
and glorious example, which, by God's help, we trust we 
shall cherish and keep green in our hearts. 

On motion, it was voted, that a copy of the above reso- 
lutions be transmitted to the family of the deceased, and 
also to the editor of the Christian Witness, for insertion in 

that paper. 

John P. Robinson, Rector. 
Wm. W. Morland, Sec. pro tern. 



From the Boston Post of Dec. 17, 1853. 

THE DEATH OF JONAS CHICKERING. 

How seldom the public heart is reached by the hand of 
death! The grave momentarily receives its victims; fami- 
lies are constantly mourning the departure of spirits that 
were precious to their own circles; friends are shedding 
tears for friends whom the world knows not ; and the public 
journalist speaks a passing eulogy upon those who were 
prized for their virtues, though only known to the few. 

12 



134 APPENDIX* 

Thus millions live and die, loving and beloved within .the 
narrow limits of individual homes, who yet were strangers 
to the busy many, who still are spared for further life and 
action. What a wilderness of feeling for kindred souls, 
constituted to advance a common happiness, and how appa- 
rently heartless are the pulsations of humanity when they 
beat for the sorrows of others ! They were — and now they 
are not. How many die whose life is only realized when 
ended by death, and who leave but little evidence of their 
usefulness except upon the slab-stones of their graves. 

Let us pause to contemplate an exception ; to look upon 
the gathering crowd marked by a common sorrow ; to 
witness tears that flow unchecked from a common fountain. 
Rank and every order of condition participate in the deso- 
lating event which has taken away a citizen, a friend, a 
husband, and a father. He was no titled ruler, surrounded 
by the insignia of office, and made powerful by means of 
public patronage which he had dispensed. He was no 
statesman, enriched by the gifts of eloquence and by the 
acquirements of knowledge, able to control a senate and to 
open the flood-gates of enthusiasm by touching the hearts 
of an admiring people. He was no warrior from the battle- 
field, a mark to attract the gaze of the curious, to excite the 
passions of the ambitious, or to gratify the patriotic multi- 
tude. He was distinguished for no exhibitions of wonderful 
feats, nor marked by any extraordinary manifestations of 
genius. He was frequently honored by others, but he was 
the humblest of the humble with his honors upon him ; and 
if he were invested by the power of wealth, he was happily 
exempted from the corroding evils which its possession 
engenders, and from those baubles of vanity which its 
presence so often creates. 



APPENDIX. 135 

What, then, was the mighty power which clothed him 
with such loveliness of character as to command the willing 
affections and respect of an entire community ? which dis- 
armed the sting of jealousy and the poison of envy ? which 
divested the selfish heart of its coat of steel and £he ebulli- 
tions of malice of their hate ? which called alike together 
the great, the humble, the rich, and the poor, to do him 
honor at the same altar, prostrate in prayer, and to follow 
in unparalleled numbers his remains to the land of the dead ? 
Why such a throng in funeral procession of a mechanic 
removed but a few hours from his bench of labor. 

It was in honor of the spirit of duty, which had been 
beautifully illustrated in the acts of the deceased. It was 
to celebrate the glorious achievements of one who sought no 
kigher distinction than that of faithfulness to the simple 
requisitions of the golden rule — to encourage the citizen 
in responding to the calls of patriotism ; to honor the man 
who was true to humanity ; to give aid with a cheerful 
spirit to the cause of truth at all times and everywhere ; to 
promote science and to cultivate the religious affections ; to 
second and sustain good resolutions in others, and to mani- 
fest £R earnest desire to contribute counsel or means to 
increase their happiness ; to count it a privilege to serve 
friends in want, and to console them in seasons of affliction ; 
to afford strength to the weak, means to the unfortunate 
and a kind word to all. He did not study how little he 
might do, but he strived to see how much ; and if he could 
not extend a helping hand to all wko approached him, no 
one went away without realizing the sincerity of his friend- 
ship. Modest and unpretending in his manners, he was at 
ease within his awn circle, and imposed no restraint upon 
those who had occasion to consult him or to ask his assist- 



136 APPENDIX. 

ance. He was a man of but few words ; but they were to 
the purpose, kindly tempered, and patiently spoken. His 
ambition was to be useful, his pride to be happy. 

What a lesson to men who aim at no higher distinction 
than that of mere possession, who vainly endeavor to secure 
an immortality by costly parades, gilded equipages, palaces 
for the enjoyment of luxuries in life, and marble monuments 
to ornament a cemetery and to command the wonder of the 
curious after death ! It is wealth, aided by the artist, 
presumptuously competing with the soul for laurels which 
never die ; and with what success may be seen in the close 
of a life of a mechanic, who was always true to duty, and 
whose decease has moved more hearts at home than the 
death of any man within the limits of our Commonwealth. 
The monuments of art crumble and become as the dust of 
the earth — lost to the human eye and mind; but the good 
deeds of men form enduring constellations of glory, which 
surround, perpetuate, and guard forever the spirits which 
gave them birth. c» 



From the New York Musical Review. 

LOWELL MASON UPON JONAS CHICKERING. 

Before this can come under the notice of the subscribers 
to the Review, notwithstanding they are widely scattered 
through the country, they will have heard of the death of 
one who is well known not only by name, but by his works, 
to all lovers of music in the land. It may be safely said, 
without in the least degree undervaluing the important 
labors of others, that no man has done more towards per- 
fecting the instrument which has now become indispensable 



APPENDIX. 137 

in almost every dwelling, than he whose deeply lamented 
and sudden death has recently been announced. The piano- 
forte has grown up and come to maturity in this country 
under the care and direction of Mr. Jonas Chickering, late 
of Boston. The very great change which he has made in 
the capacity of the instrument cannot be realized by any 
but those who have actually on hand one manufactured a 
quarter of a century ago, and who have thus the means of 
an actual comparison of the old with the new. The im- 
provements in travelling by rail and by steam are hardly 
greater than has been the growth and development of the 
instrument under the administration — as we believe the 
piano-forte manufacturers will permit it to be called— -of 
Mr. Chickering. 

But it is not to the great progress which he has made in 
his peculiar business that we would now call the attention 
of our readers. Mr. Chickering did indeed excel in the 
business he had chosen, but his excellence as a mechanic 
was not greater than his excellence as a man. Who so 
strictly honest ? On whose word could one rely with such 
implicit confidence ? Who so perfectly upright, transparent, 
and free from guile in all his dealings with his fellow-men ? 
Who so far removed from pride, assumption, and arrogance? 
Who so free from all that men call mean or overreaching in 
his dealings with his fellow-men ? Who so universally kind 
and ready at all times to attend to the calls of others? 
Whose heart more liberal ? Whose hand more open ? Who 
so universally pleasant in looks, in words, and in actions 
towards both friends and foes ? Who so ready to listen to 
the sad tale of other's woes, to sympathize with the op- 
pressed, and to relievo the suffering? We have known 
him, aye, known him intimately, for at least twenty-five 
12* 



138 APPENDIX. 

years, and we can hardly find words to express our admira- 
tion of the undeviating constancy of his goodness. But he 
needs not the feeble tribute of our praise ; his memory is 
deeply engraved on the hearts of many who have been 
partakers of his benefaction ; yet we felt a strong desire to 
say a passing word, bearing testimony to that which we 
have seen and known. Truly, "an honest man is the 
noblest work of God." 



From the IV. Y. Spirit of the Times of Bee. 11, 1852, 

On Wednesday evening last, about a quarter past eleven 
o'clock, a fire was discovered in the building owned and 
occupied by Mr. Jonas Chickering, as a piano-forte manu- 
factory, situated on Washington street ; and in less than 
one hour and a half, the entire building was one heap of 
smouldering ashes. As yet it has not been discovered how 
the fire was communicated, but circumstances lead to the 
impression that it was the work of an incendiary. One 
human being lost his life by being buried beneath the ruins 
of a wall that fell ; and may his ghost forever haunt the 
soul and body of the wretch who applied the incendiary's 
torch or match to this noble superstructure. 

By this calamitous conflagration over one hundred indus- 
trious and worthy men were thrown out of employment, 
besides being a loser, each, of from fifty to one hundred and 
fifty dollars. However, by the extraordinary energy of 
Mr. Chickering, I am pleased to hear that every man who 
was in his employ has been notified that he can retain his 
situation, as well as his salary, by continuing in the same 
employment; as Mr. Chickering has made arrangements 



APPENDIX. 139 

that will preclude the necessity of his suspending active 
business beyond a few days. I hear that Mr. Chickering 
was only partially insured ; and never, within my remem- 
brance, has there a calamity befallen one of our citizens that 
called forth such general and universal sympathy as has 
this. 

Jonas Chickering's name is closely linked with every 
charitable institution, both public and private, that is known 
in our city. He is a public benefactor, and his pecuniary 
losses are most assuredly public losses ; and while he is the 
unwavering friend and staunch supporter of all the fine arts, 
as well as artists of every nation, he is no less the friend 
and benefactor of the humble, poor, and to fame unknown, 
widow, and fatherless ; the prayers and outpourings of whose 
hearts I would sooner merit, as he does, than all the riches ^ 
of Croesus. 

Mr. Chickering's charities have ever been as boundless as 
the sea, while he has never " let his right hand know what 
his left hand doeth." All his charities have been bestowed 
with that quiet, unostentatious manner, so characteristic of 
true greatness and nobleness of character. 

I hazard nothing in saying, there is no man in our com- 
munity who holds a more exalted position in the hearts of 
our citizens of all classes than does Mr. Chickering ; he is 
respected and beloved by all, and with the strictest truth 
can it be said, he is the king of nature's noblemen. 

There is a simplicity of manner, a frankness, and sincerity 
of expression, a meaning and heart, about every act of this 
good man's life, that captivates, while it commands the most 
profound admiration of every one. 

I am delighted to hear that Mr. Chickering will continue 
his business as before, and am certain his untiring industry 



140 APPENDIX. 

and indomitable perseverance will enable him soon to make 
up the great pecuniary loss that has befallen him ; he has 
the universal confidence and sympathy, as well as the good 
wishes and esteem of our entire community. 

At the time of the occurrence of the fire, Mr. Chickering 
was absent from the city, and upon his return he appeared 
to be vastly more worried at the loss of life than at his 
own misfortune ; as he said, " he could recover his losses, 
but the life of the poor fellow who perished in endeavoring 
to save his property, he could not restore ; and that thought 
cost him a thousand times more pain and grief than would 
the loss of every dollar he was worth !" 

The name of Jonas Chickering will ever be cherished by 
every Bostonian with the greatest pride. 



From DwighVs Journal of Music of Dec. 17, 1853. 

JONAS CHICKERING. 

The grave has closed over what was mortal of that good 
man. The funeral was from Trinity Church, on Monday 
morning. Long before the appointed hour, the galleries, 
porches, and purlieus of the church were thronged with 
persons of all classes, eager to join in this last sad tribute 
of respect, and many a tear told how sincere the general 
sorrow. All met on common ground, for all had lost a 
friend. For Jonas Chickering was a representative man ; 
he stood for the general tie of friendship, so far as this 
entered as a living element into the multifarious life of this 
large community. The terms friend, neighbor, fellow- 
citizen, meant more to us when we met his face and took 
his hand. 



APTENDIX. 141 

The funeral cortege was very large, consisting, besides the 
immediate family and friends of the deceased, of the members 
of the Handel and Haydn and of the Musical Education 
Societies, the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Associa- 
tion, several Masonic bodies, the workmen of his factory, 
to the number of some two hundred, and other bodies of 
piano-forte manufacturers and their employees. These, 
with nearly all the resident musical professors and principal 
amateurs, and many of our most distinguished citizens, 
occupied the body of the church. There were crowds who 
could not find entrance. The solemnities consisted of the 
Episcopal service read by Bishop Eastburn and his assistant, 
and of solemn music by the organist and choir of the church. 
The societies above-named escorted the procession to Cam- 
bridge bridge, where carriages were provided for the many 
who wished to follow his remains to their last resting-place 
at Mount Auburn. 

Beautiful as well as sad has been this unanimous expres- 
sion of feeling called forth by the sudden departure of a 
plain and unpretending good man. It is safe to say that 
no man's loss in this community would have been felt so 
universally. Yet he was not a public man, nor one pos- 
sessed of brilliant, outwardly-commanding qualities. In 
person and in manner he was meekness and simplicity itself. 
Of humble origin, remembered without shame, he was 
humble always, humble in prosperity, but in the true, 
Christian, positive sense of the word humble. He was, 
emphatically, one of the people, meeting all persons, his 
own workmen, and the objects of his thousand nameless 
acts of charity, as equals. By his own mechanical genius 
and industry, and by his integrity and social sincerity and 
kindliness, which is the best part of social tact, he had risen 



142 APPENDIX. 

to the place he occupied as the head of the great business 
of piano-forte making in this country. Industry, sincerity, 
and kindness were the only credentials that he asked in 
others. In matters of church and state he had taken his 
place, and with the more " conservative " so-called ; but 
always it seemed that friend and neighbor and fellow-citizen 
and fellow-being were of much more account to him than 
follower of the same creed or party. He had his opinions, 
and perhaps his prejudices, but a refreshing liberality told 
in his conversation and his conduct. He loved to talk — 
of music best, to be sure — but heartily of all things inter- 
esting the attention of the community; and he judged 
thoughts and statements by the two tests of a sound intui- 
tive common-sense and a good heart, rather than by tradi- 
tions and prevailing ways of thinking. This, we believe, 
will be the universal testimony of the friends, old and 
young, who used to " drop in at C bickering's" of an after- 
noon, after the day's business was done, to have a little 
neighborly, refreshing chat with the mild and genial 
proprietor. 

Mr. Chickering's superior intelligence and really great 
moral force of purpose almost suffered, in the general 
impression, from the remarkable development of all the 
kind and generous and gentle traits in him. Yet those 
who knew him well know that, without what is called an 
education, and with no claim to extensive general infor- 
mation, he was really a most intelligent, if not precisely 
an intellectual man, and that with the most willing and 
habitual deference to other's thoughts and wishes, he, 
through all his gentleness, maintained a clear and stedfast 
purpose of his own. Bat it was his goodness of heart, his 
never-ceasing acts of charity, his uniform cordiality and 



APPENDIX. 143 

sweetness, that endeared him to all who came within his 
reach. In the musical world, especially, he was the best 
and largest representative of all our hospitality. Every 
artist came to him, sure of hearty welcome and disinterested 
advice, and, if need were, of active aid in time and money 
in the furtherance of his artistic success or the lightening 
of his failure. Many have been the cases of young and 
struggling talent, where he has furnished the means of 
education, and where he has since been looked up to almost 
as a father. To none that needed and deserved was his 
hand closed ; and if his good nature was sometimes imposed 
upon, was not the loss a thousand times made good to him 
in such a sentiment as his death shows to have long existed 
towards him in this whole community ? 

The whole cause of music in this city owes much to Mr. 
Chickering. Every worthy enterprise for the promotion of 
musical taste and culture has numbered him among its most 
efficient friends and patrons. He was for many years presi- 
dent of the Handel and Haydn Society, and always exer- 
cised an important voice in its affairs. He was one of the 
readiest and largest venturers in the Boston Music Hall 
enterprise. His pianos and his rooms for rehearsal have 
been freely at the service of all concert-giving societies or 
individuals, amateur clubs, &c. He was chairman of the 
music committee in Trinity Church, and sang there himself 
in the choir on the last Sunday of his life, volunteering to 
fill the vacancy occasioned by some difficulty among the 
regular singers.* Our own little journalizing enterprize, too, 
owes some of its earliest and best encouragement to him. 

* The editor of the " Journal of Music " has unintentionally misstated 
the facts. Mr. Chickering was among the choir of Trinity Church on the 
last Sunday of his life, but the " difficulty " which occasioned his presence 
there was in the organ, not " among the regular singers." We are parti- 



144 APPENDIX. 

This public-spirited activity of his was by no means 
limited to musical matters. He contributed his part largely 
and in all ways to the industrial, moral, and charitable 

cularly anxious to correct the statement, because we feel a great degree 
of pride, not only in the harmony made by " the regular singers," but 
also in that which exists among them ; and the statement made by the 
Journal throws an imputation upon them which they do not deserve. 
The choir of Trinity Church consists of Miss Anna Stone as the soprano, 
Mrs. Morse (formerly Miss Emmons) as contralto, Mr. Aiken as basso, 
and Mr. Kimberly as tenor. And when to these we add Mr. Hayter, Sen., 
as the organist, we think we have presented a galaxy of musical talent, of 
which any church may justly boast. Of Miss Stone we have already 
spoken„on a previous page, (see note on page 43,) and of the others it is 
sufficient praise to say that she is nobly supported. Mrs. Morse has a 
voice of surpassing sweetness, and she sings with much taste and expres- 
sion. The tenor of Mr. Kimberly is rich, and his "falsetto " is so easy, 
and in such perfect keeping, that the ear can with difficulty discern 
where it commences. Of Mr. Aiken's bass it is enough to say that it 
constitutes a foundation worthy of the superstructure. It is full without 
harshness, and sweet without effeminacy. The church has always been 
willing to pay liberally for this delightful part of its public services. For 
many years, the liberal sum of seventeen hundred dollars has been annu- 
ally appropriated for this purpose. The services of Mr. Hayter were 
secured by Rev. Dr. Wainwright (now Bishop of New York) at the time 
when he was rector of the church. Of Mr. Hayter as organist it is need- 
less to speak, as he is sufficiently known by all musical people. But of 
one peculiarity we cannot refrain from a passing remark, as it stands 
out in so bold relief from the style of others who " preside " at the organ 
or piano-forte. We allude to his making the instrument strictly subor- 
dinate. As an accompanist, he never allows the instrument to be "in 
obligator On the organ, however, he frequently indulges in a most 
delightful strain in double counterpoint, as an accompaniment, which 
leaves nothing for the ear to desire. Of the organ of Trinity Church we 
cannot say too much, and especially of the reed-stops, which are sweet 
without sameness and powerful without harshness. We have frequently 
conversed with Mr. Chickering on this subject, and have great satisfac- 
tion in knowing that his views were in strict accordance with our own. 
On the whole, it may be sufficient to say of the music of Trinity Church, 
that it is altogether of that character which will fill and satisfy th,e ears 

of those 

" who to church repair 

Not for the doctrine, but the music there." 

To which we may add that it is mainly owing to the taste and judgment 
of Mr. Chickering, that the church has so long enjoyed this delightful 
addition to her solemn services. 



APPENDIX. 145 

prestige of our city. He had been three years president 
of the Mechanic Association when he died ; and it was his 
unwearied personal devotion to the business of its last 
autumnal fair, which added, perhaps, the grain too much 
to the weight of care upon his brain, already overtasked 
by the large and complicated plans for re-arranging and 
improving his own business, after the destruction of his 
factory by fire, and brought on the first of the series of 
paralytic attacks that resulted in his death. He was a 
member of the Legislature one or two years. He was 
eminently a society-man, and an active member of many 
charitable and fraternal institutions. Death found him in 
the midst of these good works, too heartily and unselfishly 
engaged in them to heed his sudden coming, for which, 
however, he was at any time prepared. He was at the 
house of a neighbor, assisting in a meeting of the govern- 
ment or council of a new college for female medical educa- 
tion, and was expressing his views, when his head sank upon 
his breast, and earthly consciousness returned no more. 

If we have been repeating facts and impressions which 
for the week past have been the fond themes of every 
newspaper and private circle, it is because we are not 
willing that this Journal of Music should be without 
some record of a life so purely spent and so affectionately 
esteemed throughout this whole community of music- 
lovers — some monument, however humble, to his memory. 
We can say nothing that has not been better said, nothing 
that is not known to all in this vicinity, and certainly not 
the hundredth part of what is felt by all who knew him. 

Were we to state what always impressed us most in Mr. 
Chickering, we should say it was the sweet, harmonious, 
gentle sphere he carried with him. It would seem as if 

13 



146 



APPENDIX. 



music, which he so dearly loved and so truly appreciated in 
its highest forms of art, had so harmonized and tempered 
the whole inner man, as gradually to mould the naturally 
plain features of the outward man into a permanent expres- 
sion of positive beauty. His face and presence in all plea- 
sant companies contributed a certain ideal charm. The 
glow of heart and goodness made the air mild and genial 
about him. Such beautiful simplicity seldom meets us in 
mature years. Our friend was not a highly cultivated man ; 
his education had been plain and practical ; yet goodness of 
heart so shone through him with ever riper, milder, purer 
light, and music, which he not only heard and loved, but 
re-enacted daily in good deeds, had wrought such genuine 
refinement in the whole man, that he was fit society for the 
best. 

The life of Jonas Chickering was what is called an une- 
ventful one. His father was a farmer and blacksmith in 
the village of New Ipswich, N. H., where he was born in 
April, 1797, and brought up with a good common-school 
education. At the age of seventeen he was apprenticed for 
three years to a cabinet-maker in his native town. He had 
a natural love for music, and spent much of his leisure in 
learning to sing by note, and to play on such instruments 
as were most in use. There was one solitary piano in the 
village, and one maiden that could play ; and we have 
heard how the bashful lad, eager to drink in the dulcet 
Sounds, would go and linger by the gate, but could not be 
prevailed upon to enter the house of his musical fair school- 
mate. Was she not a sort of St. Cecilia to him ? and was 
not that piano, discoursing simple and old-fashioned music, 
a rarer revelation and delight to that boy's wondering soul, 
than many a most artistic concert to the satiated ears of 



APPENDIX. 147 

amateurs in cities ? In course of time the piano got out of 
tune and " out of kilter " and the ingenious Jonas must e 
called upon to try his hand at putting it in order. He 
succeeded, after much experimenting, in restoring the 
wondrous machine to usefulness. He was then nineteen, 
and this was the germ of the great piano-making business 
wliich now bears his name. He came to Boston on the 
15th of February, 1818, and sought and found employment 
that very day, where he continued at work for one year. 
He then entered the employment of Mr. Osborne, the only 
piano-forte manufacturer in Boston. In 1828 he com- 
menced the business for himself in partnership with Mr. 
Stewart, who had introduced many improvements in the 
piano, and had acquired some fame. His old associates tell 
how the " green youth from the country" soon put himself 
en rapport with the musical doings of the town ; how he 
has been seen playing a clarionet in the streets, to the 
accompaniment of bass-drum, &c, the old-fashioned military 
music of the day ; and how he sang alto in the choirs of 
various churches. Such were the plain New England 
beginnings of the man who afterwards became the centre 
of musical art and artists in this city. On the twelfth 
anniversary of his arrival in Boston, he became associated 
with the late Mr. Mackay, a thorough business-man and 
capitalist, with whom he continued ten years. The busi- 
ness has since rapidly and steadily expanded to its present 
magnitude, well known to all. It will still go on, together 
with the vast improvements which Mr. Chickering was 
completing, under his three sons, who have all had practical 
experience in the establishment. 

The funeral of Mr. Chickering was a very solemn and 
imposing occasion, m itself a inbute of the whole commu- 



248 



APPENDIX, 



nity. But we believe it is a very general feeling among 
our music-loving citizens, that some public musical solemnity 
in the Music Hall ought soon to take place in token of our 
respect and sorrow. Not, as we have seen suggested, a 
concert, to raise money and erect a monument; but an 
artistic solemnity, an expression of the general feeling by 
music, and perhaps by fit words spoken. Let the oldest 
musical society, the Handel and Haydn, of which he had 
been president, take the initiative; let all the musical socie- 
ties, resident professors and artists, music-dealers and music- 
lovers generally, raise a committee and contribute their 
energies to make it all it should be. Some of Handel's 
solemn choruses and lofty songs of faith, one of the orches- 
tral dirges of Beethoven, &c, readily suggest themselves 
as fit expressions. And why may not one of our choral 
societies master some portions of Mozart's " Requiem," the 
grandest funeral music ever written, which is performed 
once a year in every considerable town in Germany ? 



From the N. Y. Musical World fy Times of Dec. 18, 1852. 

THE PIANO-FORTE— JONAS CHICKERING. 

The piano-forte is the most universal of instruments. 
Scarcely a family in this country, beyond the ordinary 
means of subsistence, is without one. But very few, we 
imagine, are at all acquainted with the "natural history " 
of the piano ; no information touching the construction of 
the instrument, the materials used in its manufacture, 
whence derived, and the amount of capital, machinery, and 
industry applied, has been disseminated. But these must 
certainly be interesting subjects, concerning so popular, 



APPENDIX. 149 

practical, and almost necessary an appendage of social and 
domestic life. We have long had an article of this descrip- 
tion in view. And now that public attention has so gene- 
rally and sympathisingly been called to this branch of 
industry by the destruction in Boston of Mr. Chickering's 
unrivalled establishment, such an article seems peculiarly 
timely and in place. We therefore present our readers this 
week with the following truly interesting and valuable 
sketch, prepared by our colleague, Mr. Dyer, from mate- 
rials collected specially by him for the purposes 

Lady (we write to the ladies,) you are perhaps seated at 
a piano-forte. Possibly you are engaged in the laudable 
task of mastering the "elements;" you may be at that 
interesting stage of progress which is marked by the con- 
stant repetition of "one, two, three, four; one, two, three, 
four." For ought we know, you may, at this moment, be 
vainly endeavoring to coax your left hand to act its part 
with the same freedom and good-will as does your right ; 
or you may be striving to impress upon the third finger of 
cither hand the absolute necessity of its exhibiting on all 
occasions the same pith and vigor as its more muscular 
companions ; or you may be laboring to give the thumb a 
clear and practical understanding of the sideward and 
underward movement it is expected to perform. Perhaps 
you have got beyond all this. It is to be hoped you have ; 
and that you can make adventurous voyages on the open 
sea of a seven-octave piano-forte, from pole to pole of the 
instrument, untroubled by flats, shoals, sharps, sudden 
modulations, or any of the harmonic quicksands which 
reckless composers delight to scatter in the path of the 
musical voyager. 
13* 



150 APPENDIX. 

Well, we propose to write a chapter on piano-fortes. A 
brief statement of the capital, experience, skill, and industry 
expended in a single piano-forte manufactory, cannot fail, 
we think, both to interest and astonish every person. We 
have selected for our purpose the manufactory of Mr. Jonas 
Chickering of Boston, it being the only ose we know any- 
thing about. Nearly a year since (when we were preparing 
to commence the publication of the Musical World and 
Journal of the Fine Arts,) we visited Boston for the pur- 
pose of making the acquaintance of some of the leading 
musical people in that city. Prominent on our list, of 
course, was the name of Chickering. We had heard of 
Chickering, and of his " Patent Grand-action Piano-fortes," 
ever since we could remember. At one time we had an 
indefinite sort of an idea that Chickering was the inventor 
of the instrument, and made all the pianos in use. Indeed, 
the time was when we looked upon Chickering as one of 
our most important " institutions," and used to mix his 
name up with the Tariff, National Bank, Free Trade, River 
and Harbor Improvements, the Eastern Boundary, and 
other great national questions. At the time of the afore- 
said visit to Boston, our opinion respecting Mr. Chickering 
had, of course, been greatly modified; still, we had an 
opinion of him ; and for the benefit of our readers (and ? 
possibly, to the amusement of Mr. C. himself) we will state 
what sort of a man we expected to find him, and what sort 
of a man we actually did find him. 

Knowing that Mr. Chickering had been very successful 
in his business, and that he was " worth a plum or two,' 7 
our mind was, naturally enough, "severely exercised" as to 
what manner of man he might be ; and, in walking from 
our hotel to his office, we mentally painted his portrait to 



APPENDIX. 151 

the best of our ability. The result of our efforts was the 
production of a picture (in our mind's eye) of a gentleman 
some six feet high ; rather stout ; aged, but hale and 
hearty ; his hair " frosted over by some seventy winters," 
and standing obstinately out from his head like Beethoven's; 
his features sharp, angular, cutting, and the expression of 
his countenance severe and determined, with a mixture of 
hauteur. We expected to be received with cool indifference, 
and made to feel that between a successful millionaire, with 
the income of a prince, and an unfledged publisher, whose 
income was much less certain than his outgoes, there is a 
tremendous gulf, which the latter would do well not to 
attempt hastily to cross. Under these impressions, we 
mounted the stairs that led to Mr. Chickering's counting- 
room, entered, asked for Mr. Jonas C bickering, and were 
directed to seek him in a certain room pointed out. We 
knocked at the door of said room, supposing we were now 
at the portals of the innermost sanctuary. " Come in," 
said a mild voice. In we went. Instead of finding (as we 
expected) a gorgeously furnished office, with the original of 
the mental portrait above-described sitting in state at one 
end of it, we found a very practical workshop ; and at a 
sort of cabinet-maker's bench, we saw a middle-aged man, 
of medium size, wearing spectacles and a check-apron, hold- 
ing a plane in his hand; and this was Mr. Chickering. 

The reader can doubtless imagine our surprise at this 
discovery. Our pre-conceived notions of Mr. C.'s personal 
appearance, when contrasted with the reality, struck us as 
being so very droll, that we could hardly refrain from smil- 
ing ; but we thanked heaven for the dis-illusion. The real 
Chickering was worth a regiment of our imaginary Chick- 
erings. As we gazed upon his honest, intelligent, and 



152 APPENDIX. 

benevolent countenance, we thought we divined at once the 
secret of his unparalleled success ; and subsequent observa- 
tion confirmed our first impression on this point. From 
our present knowledge of Mr. Chickering's character, we 
have no hesitation in saying that it never was his primary 
object to make money. He always has been, is, and, from 
the constitution of his mind, he must always be, ambitious 
to make the best possible instruments, without regard to 
the time, labor, and expense bestowed on their production. 
This, we are confident, is the governing motive of his mind; 
and success must, perforce, follow. Mr. Chickering can no 
more escape success, so long as he shall continue in business, 
than he can get rid of his shadow ; for success is (so to 
speak) but the shadow of his character — and " may it 
never be less." Many persons, neglecting the substance, 
eagerly grasp after the shadow, and, like the dog in the 
fable, lose both. But Mr. Chickering is only anxious to 
secure the substance ; he does secure it, and the shadow 
follows of course. 

During our stay in Boston, we took occasion to ramble 
over Mr. Chickering's establishment, at 334 Washington 
street, and learn some of the mysteries of piano-forte making. 

In the first place, we found that the lumber used in 
making pianos, and which consists for the most part of oak, 
rock-maple, pine, and spruce, comes from Maine, New 
Hampshire, and New York. The hard wood (oak and 
rock-maple) comes from New Hampshire, and is used for 
the legs of the pianos and the foundations of the cases. 
The soft wood, or pine, comes from Maine, and is used for 
a variety of purposes too numerous to mention. The spruce 
is used only for sounding-boards, and is all obtained in 
Herkimer county in the State of New York. Mr. Chicker- 



APPENDIX. 153 

ing considers this spruce equal to the Swiss pine, or fir, and 
uses it altogether for his sounding-boards — a fact of which 
the inhabitants of " Old Herkimer" would do well to make 
a note. While this lumber is yet in the forests of Maine, 
New Hampshire, and New York, it is cut and sawed into 
blocks, boards, and pieces of the most convenient size and 
shape for the piano-forte makers, and is thence conveyed by 
boat and railroad to the factories where it is to be worked 
up. The selection and purchase of lumber is a matter of 
the highest importance, and requires the keenest inspection 
and most faultless judgment, as the wood must be straight- 
grained and free from all knots, shakes, or other imperfec- 
tions. Mr. Chickering never buys lumber on the recom- 
mendation of any one, but always examines it himself. He 
purchases vast quantities at a time — often a hundred thou- 
sand feet or more in a lot ; and he always has from fifty to 
seventy-five thousand dollars worth of rough wood or lumber 
on hand. 

In addition to the lumber abovementioned, Mr. Chicker- 
ing always keeps on hand from thirty to fifty thousand 
dollars worth of veneering. This is composed principally 
of rosewood, comparatively little mahogany now being used 
for that purpose. It seems strange that so fashionable a 
wood as mahogany once was, should now be so generally 
"cut " by fashion's votaries ; but so it is. Woods, like men 
and books and isms, have their day, and are superseded by 
rivals. Just now, rosewood is the favorite cabinet material. 
Rosewood is brought from South America. 

The hardware annually consumed at Mr. Chickering's 
establishments (we say establishments, for he has four facto- 
ries) amounts to no insignificant item. It consists of hinges, 
screws, castors, locks, etc., which in the aggregate amount 



154 



APPENDIX. 



to several thousand dollars a year. Then there are the 
tuning-pins ; they cost some twenty-five hundred dollars 
per annum. 

The ivory, for keys, is another item of consequence. 
Until within four or five years, ivory was bought in the 
tooth, and worked up by the piano-forte maker with ma- 
chinery made expressly for that purpose; but now it is 
obtained already prepared for the keys. Messrs. Pratt, 
Brother & Co,, of Deepriver, Conn., now furnish prepared 
ivory for nearly all the principal piano-forte makers in the 
Union. 

Another expensive item is the wire of which the strings 
are made. Formerly all the wire used for this purpose had 
to be imported at considerable expense from England ; but, 
within a couple of years, a Mr. Washburn of Worcester, 
Mass., has succeeded in producing a wire which is much 
superior to anything of the kind made on the other side of 
the Atlantic ; and he now furnishes most of the wire used 
for piano-forte strings in this country. This is a great 
convenience, for the wire is not only thus obtained more 
readily, but it is cheaper and better. 

The frames of Mr. Chickering's piano-fortes are made of 
solid iron, and are cast at Alger's foundry in South Boston. 
They constitute another item of expense, which is by no 
means insignificant. 

It may be that by this time the reader begins to think 
that to carry on the business of making piano-fortes is no 
trifling affair, and requires not a little capital ; and if the 
reader does think so, he thinks right. Taking the outlay 
for buildings, the value of real estate, the cost of lumber, 
machinery, tools, and other materials on hand, and the 
working cash capital necessary to keep everything going on 



APPENDIX. 155 

smoothly, and Mr. C nickering must have nearly, if not 
quite, half a million of dollars invested in his business. 

We will now endeavor to give an intelligent statement of 
the process of piano-forte making. We shall not go into all 
the particulars, nor begin at the uttermost beginning. That 
would be unnecessary. As long as ivory is used for cover- 
ing the keys of pianos, elephants will have to be caught and 
the dentistical operation of extracting their tusks will have 
to be performed ; but it is not necessary to describe that. 
So trees will have to be felled and sawed for lumber, and 
mines must be worked for ore ; but it is not necessary to 
describe these operations. We will begin at Mr. C bicker- 
ing's factory at Lawrence, in the Commonwealth of Massa- 
chusetts. 

It has been stated that Mr. Chickering always has on 
hand from fifty to seventy-five thousand dollars worth of 
rough wood or lumber. Well, this wood is " stuck up to 
season" in yards prepared for that purpose at Lawrence. 
After having been thus exposed to the weather for a couple 
of years or more, it is removed under cover, where it is left 
to " season " for some two years longer. Thus it will be 
seen that the wood is kept on hand from three to four years 
before it is considered fit for use. After the wood has been 
thus dried and re-dried, it is sawed and planed and turned 
into the right dimensions and shapes for the foundation of 
the cases, legs, etc. This is all done at Lawrence, by the 
aid of the river Merrimac, which kindly drives the machinery 
for Mr. Chickering. (Some of these Yankee workshops are 
rather exciting places for a novice to visit. There are so 
many saws and augers and planes and turning-lathes buzzing 
and boring and skirring and whirring around, that unless 
one looks sharp he will find an auger-hole through him, or 



156 APPENDIX. 

have a shaving taken off him, before he knows what he is 
about.) The wood being cut as aforesaid, the pieces are 
put up in what is called the " drying-room," and dried or 
seasoned fir the third time. They remain here a year or 
longer, never being used until they have become thoroughly 
seasoned. In this way stock for twelve or fifteen hundred 
cases is always on hand : and when one lot is taken down, 
another lot is put up in its place for the next year. Thus, 
it appears, that after a tree is cut down and sawed into 
lumber, it has to undergo a probation of some six years, 
before it is admitted into one of Chickering's pianos. This 
is to ensure its good behavior after being incorporated with 
an instrument ; and it is no more than right that Mr. 
Chickering should be thus exacting ; for if a bit of lumber 
in a piano should shrink or warp or crack, the instrument 
would inevitably be spoiled. It is well, therefore, to guard 
against such an untoward event, by taking all friskiness out 
of the wood before letting it into a piano ; just as cautious 
old gentlemen are careful to ascertain whether a young 
fellow has sown all his wild oats, before admitting him into 
their families. 

The material being at last sufficiently seasoned, it is 
worked up into what is called the skeleton of the piano, 
which consists simply of the case and legs before they have 
been veneered, that is, covered with a thin coating of rose- 
wood or mahogany. Mr. Chickering considers the " skele- 
ton" a very important part of the piano, and is particularly 
careful to have it made in the best possible manner. When 
these " skeletons" are completed, they are transported by 
railroad from the factory at Lawrence to the veneering 
factory, which is situated in Franklin Square, Boston. 
This veneering factory is an extensive establishment ; it is 



APPENDIX. 157 

one hundred and fifteen feet long, sixty-five feet wide, and 
five stories high. Here one hundred men are employed in 
veneering the cases, in carving, and other ornamental work. 
The cases being completed at the Franklin Square factory, 
are now transported to the finishing-rooms in the building 
No. 334 Washington street,* Boston, where are also the 
salesrooms. This building is a very fine one. It is one 
hundred feet long on the street, and one hundred and thirty 
feet deep. It forms an L, one side of which is sixty, and 
the other fifty feet wide. The edifice is five stories high. 
In this establishment are employed about one hundred 
workmen in " finishing" the pianos. This term " finishing' ' 
is very comprehensive, the business being divided into 
upwards of twenty different departments or classes. To 
each department a certain number of men is assigned, and 
they never do anything that does not come under their 
department. The same men always do the same things 
from year's end to year's end. For example, the man who 
makes hammers never , does anything else. He simply 
hammers away at his hammers from day to day and month 
to month and year to year. Yes, from year to year ! Mr. 
Chickering has a man in his factory who has done nothing 
but make hammers to piano-fortes for thirty years I But 
a hammer, even, is not all made by one man. This seem- 
ingly small business is subdivided into four departments ; 

*This splendid establishment, with all its contents, was totally con- 
sumed by fire on the night of Wednesday, Dec. 1, 1852. The loss, over 
and above the insurance, is estimated at two hundred thousand dollars, 
and the damage to Mr. Chickering's business, owing to disarrangements, 
delays, and other causes resulting from the conflagration, must come near 
another hundred thousand dollars. But Mr. C. will easily surmount the 
difficulties consequent upon this calamity; his name — his character is 
alone sufficient to beat back and overcome all the pecuniary catastrophes 
that could possibly befal him. 

14 



158 APPENDIX. 

one workman making the wood- work ; another, the hinges 
or joints ; a third puts on the leathers ; and a fourth fits 
the hammers in their places in the instrument. So the 
men who put in the strings never do anything else ; they 
who make the sounding-boards never do anything else ; the 
men who make the keys never do anything else ; and thus 
it is throughout every department. There are several 
workmen who have been in Mr. Chickering's employment 
over thirty years, and have never done but one kind of 
work. This minute subdivision of labor secures, of course, 
the greatest possible uniformity and perfection ; and herein 
may be found one of the causes of the great excellence of 
Mr. Chickering's piano-fortes. 

The first thing put into the case is the sounding-board, 
on the quality and preparation of which depends, to a great 
extent, the character of the instrument ; therefore its prepa- 
ration receives especial attention. As has been already 
stated, the sounding-board is made of spruce, which comes 
from Herkimer county, in this State. The spruce boards 
are kept in a spacious room, in which there is a huge coal- 
fire the year round. The fire is as hot during the most 
sweltering days of summer, as in the coldest winter time. 
This is for the purpose of having the boards thoroughly 
seasoned, inasmuch as the slightest remains of dampness 
would be fatal. There are some important facts in relation 
to the preparation of these boards, which we are not at 
liberty to mention. After the sounding-board has been put 
in, the case is taken to the varnishing-room and varnished. 
It is then taken to the " finishing-room' ' par excellence, 
where it is positively and finally " finished," after passing 
through the hands of five different classes of workmen. In 
the first place it is " strung." Then the action (that is, 



APPENDIX. 159 

the keys, hammers, etc.,) is put in; and after the action has 
been properly adjusted, the tuners follow, and "put the 
instrument in tune." Next it is carefully inspected and 
regulated by a Mr. Brown, an experienced workman, who 
has done nothing else for a number of years. The piano- 
forte is then put into the salesroom, where it is again exam- 
ined by Mr. Chickering himself, who remedies any trifling 
errors he may discover; but if he detects an important 
defect, he sends the instrument back to the department in 
which the error occurred, and has it at once perfected. 

We have omitted to mention one point which deserves 
especial notice, viz : the manufacture of the keys. These 
are made at a factory which is situated in Lancaster, Mass, 
Here Mr. Chickering keeps from fifteen to twenty men 
constantly at work making keys. The business is divided 
into several branches. One man does the wood-work; 
another the ivory-work ; a third blacks the keys, etc. - Now 
to give the ladies — for whose gratification this article, we 
said, is written — an idea of the complicated character of 
the action of a piano-forte, and the labor expended upon it, 
it may be remarked that, to perfect a key so as to be certain 
when you strike it that a tone will follow, over sixty distinct 
pieces of material are necessary I In a seven-octave piano 
there are eighty -five keys ; so that in the action of such an 
instrument there are over five thousand pieces of wood, 
brass, iron, steel, cloth, leather, &c, which have to be 
handled over one by one, and two-thirds of them have to 
be handled several times. Reflect a moment, reader, and 
get a realizing sense of the vast amount of patient, skilful 
toil that has been expended in arranging those simple-looking 
keys (over which you run your fingers so glibly) ready to 
your hand. That last word, in this connection, strikes us 



160 APPENDIX. 

forcibly. Hand ! — hand-labor is not very highly respected 
in what are considered the most respectable quarters. The 
hand is, in fact, considered vulgar ; hut it is a mighty 
appendage, that hand. Suppose the human arm had termi- 
nated with the claw of a bird, the paw of a beast, the — 
anything, in short, but a hand. The human race would 
never have got beyond fig-leaf garments ; yea, they never 
would have got so far as fig-leaves. They never would 
have got anywhere. The human head is doubtless an 
important affair ; but, unsupported by the human hand, it 
had better never have been created. But to return to our 
subject. 

As has been stated, Mr. Chickering has half a million 
dollars invested in his business, and keeps four factories in 
operation. He makes, on an average, twenty-five pianos a 
week, or thirteen hundred a year, and keeps some three 
hundred workmen constantly employed. His instruments 
have a transcendent reputation, especially his Grand Piano- 
fortes. After what has been stated, it will not be difficult 
to account for their excellence. Mr. Chickering never 
allows an instrument to be sold until he has himself exam- 
ined, tested, and approved it. He still works, more or less, 
at his business ; is constantly introducing improvements in 
piano-forte making, and perfecting the details of the art ; 
and he is the guiding and directing spirit of the vast opera- 
tions we have described. True, he has his business so well 
organized that, to the superficial observer, it seems to " go 
itself;" but, still, his is the energetic and controlling mind. 
He watches over everything, directs everything, and perfects 
everything ; and he makes no fuss about it. It is all done 
so quietly, one hardly knows that anything is done at all. 
This is the crowning feature of Mr. Chickering's enterprise, 



APPENDIX. 161 

and at once stamps him a superior man ; and this is a good 
point with which to close this part of the subject. We have 
done with the piano-forte maker; now a word to the piano- 
forte owner. 

Perhaps you have one of Chickering's " Grands" by 
your side. What is it ? To most minds it is simply a 
mechanical arrangement of wood, iron, ivory, steel, wire, 
leather, and various other vulgar materials, which, taken 
separately, are beneath the notice of any well-bred lady or 
gentleman ; it is a mere mechanical affair, and the maker 
is, of course, only a mechanic. But a piano-forte is more 
than this ; it is thought, courage, genius, industry, inven- 
tion, and skill embodied. Look at your piano, lady. Are 
you aware that, to produce this simple instrument, men 
peril their lives hunting elephants in the jungles of India ; 
that the forests of Maine, New Hampshire, New York, and 
South America, resound with the strokes of the woodman's 
axe ; that the bowels of the earth are ransacked for ore ; 
that numberless mills are kept running night and day ; that 
hundreds of steam-engines constantly ply their tireless arms ; 
that ships traverse the ocean ; that from East and West and 
North and South the trophies of industry and skill and 
human daring are gathered together at vast expense, and 
often at imminent peril ? that, in short, dear lady, to place 
a piano-forte in your parlor, involves from first to last a 
greater expenditure of courage, skill, science, and genius, 
than it took to govern ancient Rome, or than now suffices 
to rule modern France ? The piaro is a noble instrument, 
and should be nobly treated. Therefore do not thump it 
and bang it and ignorantly rattle over it, or consign it to 
dusty and cobweb-y oblivion; do not load it down with 
books and all kinds of rubbish (this is both injurious to 



162 



APPENDIX. 



the instrument and unartistic ;) but treat it considerately 
and tenderly, keep it always nicely dusted, close it when 
you have done using it, and be especially careful of its 
voice; let those vocal tendons, so delicately strung and 
adjusted, be always kept at the desirable pitch of tension ; 
if they fall, the music of the voice is gone, and the brilliancy 
and worth of your instrument is departed. 



From the Evening Gazette of Bee. 17, 1853. 

MR. CHICKERING'S ESTATE. 

The interest manifested in the welfare of the firm of 
Jonas Chickering & Sons, has induced many to ask of the 
future of a concern so identified with this city. We learn 
that Mr. Chickering's affairs are left in such a state that it 
will require very little time to close them up, and it is the 
intention of the family to continue the business as hereto- 
fore. Mr. Thomas E. Chickering is himself a most accom- 
plished and ingenious mechanic, who is every way qualified 
to assume a position which the loss of his father imposes 
upon him. He will be assisted by his brothers, Messrs. 
Francis and George Chickering ; and with the aid of Mr. 
Stephen Clapp, for many years the foreman, and of Mr. 
George H. Child, the clerk, we anticipate for them many 
years of prosperity. The new building on Tremont Road 
will be speedily finished. 






J. 



